Solar Education – Consulting – Design

Paul Shippee, Director of the Crestone Solar School, has been designing solar and natural buildings since 1974, based first in Boulder, CO, and later in Crestone, CO (see a few of his projects here).

Watch this 11-minute professional video of Paul’s work and his sustainable solar design philosophy,

Paul consults with home owner-builders on high-performance passive solar home designs that integrate a simple drain-back solar system for domestic hot water (see a simple solar drain-back design here).

Paul has received numerous awards for his work in the solar industry. Over the years he has designed, built and monitored the five basic types of passive solar buildings. More recently, he incorporated solar thermal collectors into passive solar designs. These store additional solar heat in radiant floors and provide domestic hot water as well. Radiant floors provide economical solar heat storage for nighttime & cloudy day use, and can move the winter solar heating performance very close to 100%, when combined with ample south-facing glass. Alternative building methods, overheating concerns and insulation levels are also included.

If you are building a solar home or greenhouse, and you have lingering questions or doubts or would like to confirm that you are on the right track, give Paul a buzz.

If you are in the planning and design stages, let Paul review the concept and catch any design flaws in the early stages.

Investing in a consulting fee now could save you thousands of dollars in the long run. Design consulting could be the wisest investment you will make in your home.

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Testimonials

“Paul Shippee designed a solar heating system retrofit addition for us that went active in February of 2012.  The system ties in to the radiant heat tubes in our floors and heats our domestic water—which was exactly what we wanted the system to do.  It’s been fun seeing our propane bills drop as our comfort level has risen.  To hear the system turn on, knowing the sun is heating our water and our space, brings a smile to my face.  Paul is very knowledgeable in the solar energy field and set us up with a great system that not only works well, but has been simple to maintain.  After a few initial tweaks, it basically does its thing and we leave it alone.” – Patti Hastreiter, Howard, CO

“When I decided to build a solar heated home in Colorado, I researched different approaches and settled on the drain back system.  I am happy that I did.  The drain back has been a wonderful system for us…efficient and relatively easy to maintain. As important, was the space design process that we engaged in. I was interested in an artistically pleasing, energy efficient, passive solar design, and that is exactly what was ultimately envisioned and created by a three person team that included our design/build person, myself, and Paul Shippee our solar designer/installer.  I enjoyed creating our ideal space together over the course of the pre-construction period of several months, and throughout the building process as well.  What resulted was a very efficient and beautiful space that met all the requirements of my family.” – Rebecca Owens,Salida, CO