Apr 18 2012
Question About Renewable Energy
I think that I may be missing something very obvious here, but I’m wondering why it is advantageous in terms of sustainable design for energy for houses to be oriented facing the South? Also, with regard to biomass energy, why does deforestation in order to harvest wood raise water temperatures?
Hope this helps on question 1: http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/home/construction/solardesign/orientation.html
or
http://homepower.com/basics/design/
The houses are facing the South to absorb the heat from the sun in the winter. As for the trees, Im not really sure but it could be because it lessens the amount of shade over nearby bodies of water? Someone else might have to help on that one.
I know deforestation increases the temperature over the entire region because there are no longer plants to do transpiration and “sweat” for the region so it gets hotter. So I’m thinking that’s just another side effect. Higher air temp. higher water temp.
“Water temperature fluctuations in streams may be further worsened by cutting down trees which provide shade and by absorbing more heat from sunlight due to increased water turbidity.”
More turbid waters absorb more energy apparently. So, less trees, more erosion, more turbidity (suspended solids/sediments), higher temps (and less oxygen)….
Source: http://www.waterontheweb.org/under/waterquality/temperature.html