Using a high level sunroom to heat lower rooms. Would this idea work?

[ubdai]

Hi all,

Would appreciate some feedback on the attached PDF.

Its basically an idea for a high level sun room /sun space to capture as much heat during the day to use later.
The location used is the only position that I have and its unfortunate that its at high level.
The previous owners of the house were planning to extend the property but ran out of cash. The external stairs were to be used to access an extension.
How they planned to do this without plunging the rear of the house into darkness I don't know. (Don't plan to build in the hatched area as the tendency here is to build on your boundary wall which is normally a single concrete block think. Double skin and insulation don't make me laugh)

Anyhow, after buying the house we do not have the cash for a major large scale build and are trying to do something smaller
to camouflage and use the structures that are left. (The external stairs and western kitchen - these were an add on to the original house).

The kitchen is a concrete block wall structure with a galvanised steel roof, this to be replaced with a reinforced cast insitu concrete slab. The sun house would then be built on top of this.

House location is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (see attached pic for exact location if interested) at an elevation of 2355m

Thanks
ubdai

[dhaslam]

Generally  sun rooms are not such a good idea  because they overheat in summer and are cold in winter.   However I suspect your climate may be a bit different being at a high altitude in a sunny area.    It might be better to have  a roof  that can be opened in hot weather and closed at night etc. This way you get the best of both worlds.       billi on this forum had  an idea something like that  a few years back. 

[wookey]

Viking house have done some good work on heating a passivehaus retrofit with a sunspace, inlcuding some good ideas about how to stop it overheating (through-venting).
http://www.viking-house.ie/solar-house.html

Not sure how well that relates to a non-passivehaus in ethiopia, but it's good info.

You might find that asking this question on the Green Building Forum will get better feedback.