Southern Elevation from East
South elevation of the Springtime Cottage a passive solar design by Asheville green builder Springtime Homes. All three forms of solar energy can be seen in this picture. Along with the passive solar design of the southern windows with properly sized overhangs, the panel at the bottom is an evacuated tube collector for the domestic hot water. The small photovoltaic PV panel above, passively supplies electricity to the circulating pump for the collector. This passive type of solar hot water system reduces problems by eliminating electronic controllers and using a DC pump which lasts much longer than typical AC pumps. When the sun is bright enough to heat fluid in the collector, its strong enough to power the PV panel and circulator.