Insist on Passive Solar Design for Your New Home
A new home that you designed yourself (or rather, with the help of a design firm) should be as close to perfect as possible. A feature that people often forget to look into is passive solar, also called passive design. This is a design where the house is constructed to preserve cool air inside in summer and warm air inside in winter. The "passive" refers to the fact that you and the house don't have to do anything to put this strategy into effect.