Tang Lee is a bit of a renegade amongst Canadian architects. The professor and building science expert has shown—in homes, airplane hangars and even churches—that solar heating doesn't require specialized, costly technology. In fact, it can be as simple as a metal roof, a hot water tank, some fans and tubes and a concrete floor.

Lee is Professor of Architecture, Building Science and Environmental Health at the University of Calgary. He was in Kimberley in June to give two workshops on Practical and Cost-Effective Solar Heating. Hosted by the Kimberley Campus of the College of the Rockies and Wildsight, and supported in part by Golden Timber Frames, the workshops attracted 92 participants. “This is the most people of any workshop we've run,” said Mike Flowers, COTR's manager of continuing education (Cranbrook) and manager of the Kimberley campus.

The two, day-long workshops were an expansion of Lee's presentation at this year's Building Sustainability conference. Lee described the basic principles of solar sunspaces, solar metal roofs and geothermal earth tubes. He also reviewed available solar technology and de-bunked a few ‘snake oil' myths about solar. It doesn't have to be complicated, he said, and it doesn't have to be scary.

“Don't let the word ‘system' scare you,” Lee said. “In any solar system there are only two loops: the heat collection loop and the heat distribution loop. You collect it, you store it; when you need it you take it out of storage and distribute it.”

Lee helped design Canada's first solar demonstration home in the early 1970s, and has designed dozens of solar buildings since then. He has been instrumental in simplifying solar for application in Canada. His early projects were “over-designed” he said, costly to build and unnecessarily exact. But he learned over time that solar is a forgiving resource: it can be used in many ways and can do double duty, preheating water for domestic use and then heating air.

“Anytime you have a wall surface it's a potential for solar,” Lee said. “With the power of the sun, the sky's the limit.” He dismissed old-school solar items like water barrels and Trombé walls as more trouble than they're worth. And those “sexy” sloped windows so many of us associate with solar homes? Forget about them, he said — “They overheat in the summer and leak like crazy.” In fact, the best way to bring solar heat directly into a home is through an attached sunspace with vertical windows, something that can work for many homes. He showed many diagrams of sunspaces, metal roofs and earth tubes built with “off the shelf—nothing fancy” technology.

“We need to retrofit these dinosaurs,” Lee said, referring to the energy-inefficient structures many of us call home. “But the biggest bang for your buck is to make your home efficient before you think of solar,” he added, recommending insulation values of R20-30 for walls and R30 to R40 for ceilings.

So how easy is it for someone to replicate a Tang Lee solar roof, attached sun space or earth tube system in their own home? Replication isn't the point, Lee said.

“Once you understand the principles, you can work out the details,” he said, noting that there is no single prescription for solar that works on every site. He sees ever more creative solutions emerge as peak oil awareness takes hold.

“Your grandparents didn't have cheap fossil fuels to use and your children won't,” he said. “We're living in the short-lived fossil fuel age—half of the planet's fossil fuel is already gone.”

Lee projected a map of the global energy future, showing that solar, wind and hydro will be the only energy sources not exhausted by the year 2040. Nuclear is limited because the amount of uranium on the planet is finite, he noted. “The only scenario is renewable energy — the future really is solar.”

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The College of the Rockies and Wildsight are showing their support for a renewable energy future by purchasing F-Chart software. The software takes the guesswork out of planning a solar heating or hot water system. All members of the public will be able to access the software free of change. “This software has solar data for any location in North American and lets you accurately assess what the return will be on putting in different types of solar,” said Mike Flowers, of COTR. F-Chart will be installed in the public computer lab at the Kimberley Campus by early September.

Flowers also announced the dates for next year's Sustainability Conference: January 28, 29 and 30, 2011. “Next year's conference will be expanded to include local food production as well as sustainable building,” he said. “We may bring Tang Lee back to talk about how to build and run your own solar greenhouses.”

Finally, COTR's Natural Building School is well underway, with eight full-time students busy in the eight-week program. The two-day solar energy component of the course is set for the first week of August and there are still some seats available. CONTACT: 1-877-489-2687, Ext. 3752.