Meet Bruce Brownell

THE HARNESSES and puts it to use! Bruce Brownell ENERGY SUN’S

WRITTEN BY WENDY HOBDAY HAUGH PHOTOS BY WENDY HAUGH AND BRUCE BROWNELL

When it comes to passive solar energy, Bruce Brownell of Edinburg is nothing short of a local legend and time-honored pioneer. Passionate about the implementation of sustainable forms of energy, Brownell has spent the last 50 years designing passive solar buildings, studying their many monetary and health benefits, and sharing that information with others. Brownell earned a degree in Construction Management and Wood Products Engineering from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, in 1964. His interest in solar energy, however, began long before that. “As a kid, I was outside all the time,” Brownell recalls. “In winter, I noticed that on southerly slopes, under the lowhanging limbs of field pines, the ground was always bare of snow. I used to crawl in there, take off my jacket, and feel completely comfortable.” This indelible childhood experience led Brownell to begin imagining ways to harness solar energy to heat houses and other structures. “The term passive solar heating refers to an ancient and intuitive method of heating, dating back to ancient Rome,” Brownell explains. “Many people today hear the term ‘passive solar’ and immediately think of photovoltaics. But passive solar is something totally different. Thermal energy flows through the system by natural means of radiation, conduction, and convection. Unlike photovoltaics, the building design does not require separate collectors. Instead, a passive solar home’s many south-facing windows enable it to perform in cooperation with its immediate environment. A structure like this requires proper integration of the site, climate, building materials, and sun. The successful result—heat—comes from a never-ending, free supply of natural energy.” To date, Bruce Brownell—who owns and operates Adirondack Alternate Energy in Edinburg—has designed 383 homes. “I’ve got houses from north of Chicago to Nova Scotia,” the 81-yearold reports, “but most of them are in this area.” Despite his impressive engineering career, Brownell considers himself to be an educator, first and foremost. Whether explaining passive solar concepts to college students, prospective clients, or home show attendees, he enjoys nothing more than sharing his first-hand knowledge and taking on the inevitable skeptics.

“For years, I taught 12-week seminars at Union College to 30-40 people at a time, most of them engineers. I also offered weekend seminars attended by up to a thousand people. My students challenged me continually. But by the end of our time together, usually I had turned their thinking around and gained a lot of followers.” Overall, despite the fact that sunlight is free and abundantly available, “passive solar has been anything but an easy sell,” Brownell muses. “Solar heating’s heyday began when Jimmy Carter entered the White House in 1977. President Carter was a huge supporter of solar energy and had solar panels installed on the White House roof. When he instituted his solar initiatives and offered people $10,000 tax incentives, I was doing 40 houses a year. But, then, the next president came in, and everything changed. The solar panels were removed, Carter’s program was scrapped, and all those incentives ended. Immediately, I dropped down to eight houses per year as focus shifted from sustainable solar energy back to unsustainable fossil fuels.” People are often surprised to learn that a passive solar house can be built in any size, shape, and style. At first glance, it might even be mistaken for a more traditionally-built home. The construction differences, however, are significant and many. A Bruce Brownell house is always oriented solar south and insulated on all six sides. Two separate layers of 2” thick, foil-covered foam board—all joints staggered and seams foil-taped—cover the four exterior walls, above the roof, and beneath the first living level (usually the basement). Brownell is quick to point out, however, that his basements are anything but the damp, inhospitable living spaces frequently associated with more traditional homes. “A cement floor is porous,” he explains, “so if it isn’t properly insulated below the floor, the cement acts as a sieve that allows moisture from the ground below to pass freely into, and out of, a typical basement. By insulating beneath the cement floor, we create another warm, comfortable, and completely moisture-free living space.” Although a small back-up source of heat is recommended in a passive solar home, the sun provides the lion’s share of the heat. An extensive duct system circulates energy entering via the windows through an elaborate grid of galvanized pipes. These pipes are embedded in 12 inches of a concrete mass system, or heat energy battery, located beneath the building’s lowest floor. A fan located in the central airshaft draws air from the home’s highest, warmest point down into the heat energy battery. From there, it is circulated throughout the living space.

Brownell estimates that the initial building costs of his houses are 15-20% higher than conventional homes. “But, as a result of our six-sided, high-performance insulation envelope,” he adds, “our homes require less than one-seventh the energy of a typical new house. The cumulative savings in heating bills, coupled with the homeowners’ increased year-round physical comfort, more than make up for the difference. “Homeowners report an unparalleled level of human comfort. They are never cold, and their families have fewer sore throats and colds because the interior relative humidity stays at 40-45% all winter. In fact, if you shut up one of my houses and head south for the winter, your pipes won’t freeze. The temperature within the house will never drop below 40-41 degrees.” When it comes to passive solar energy, Bruce Brownell knows his stuff. And as long as the sun is out there, warming the earth free of charge in unlimited supply, this lifelong student and dedicated educator will be out there promoting solar energy’s smart use and myriad benefits.