The Naugler’s Energy Biography
Win & Janis Naugler were teachers. Janis taught elementary school until they had their first child, then she became a full time Mom. Janis and Win are proud the parents of four children. Win taught Technology Education in Nova Scotia Jr. & Sr. High Schools and later teacher education students. Win was keen on teaching students problem solving strategies; he was always looking for problems that he could present to students so that they could design and build a solution. He was instrumental in helping to develop a number of new courses during his teaching career.
Janis and Win got their first glimpse of a solar furnace in Portland, Maine during the summer of 1976 while in summer school. The following fall Win constructed a 3’ X 3’ solar air heater to test while he and Janis researched and planned for the building of a solar home. The first Naugler Solar House was constructed by the Nauglers in Port Williams, Nova Scotia during the summer of 1977. The House was a combination of passive and active solar. The passive element of the house worked very well with lots of south facing windows and plenty of thermal mass in the form of a masonry fireplace & chimney. Regardless of how cold it was on a sunny winter day, the house was warm and cosy without help from the wood stove. In the summer the home was cool because of the planned overhang. The active element consisted of air collectors on the south facing roof and rock storage in the basement. Because of a design flaw that could not be corrected, reverse thermo siphoning cooled the rock storage at night leaving low grade heat that was of no value during the winter months. The active solar part was removed before selling the home in 1990.
Throughout the years the Nauglers have owned a number of homes and have done energy upgrades on all of them. In one renovation they installed in-floor heating, before in-floor heating was popular, with R20 insulation under the slab when engineers advised that R10 was adequate. Win has worked with many persons and groups in the interests of energy efficiency and education.
Janis and Win took Solar Nova Scotia’s, Solar Home Design Course during the winter of 2009. The course renewed their interest in solar energy and Win convinced his son Tim to take the Solar Construction Course with him in April 09. It didn’t take very much to get Tim enthused about the benefits of passive solar design. Shortly after that Janis and Win moved to Fredericton and joined forces with Tim to form Southern Exposure Construction Inc. with the goal of designing and building energy efficient homes. Tim introduced Janis and Win to Passive House and they were not long deciding to build a home to meet passive house standards. Here we go again!
Janis and Win got their first glimpse of a solar furnace in Portland, Maine during the summer of 1976 while in summer school. The following fall Win constructed a 3’ X 3’ solar air heater to test while he and Janis researched and planned for the building of a solar home. The first Naugler Solar House was constructed by the Nauglers in Port Williams, Nova Scotia during the summer of 1977. The House was a combination of passive and active solar. The passive element of the house worked very well with lots of south facing windows and plenty of thermal mass in the form of a masonry fireplace & chimney. Regardless of how cold it was on a sunny winter day, the house was warm and cosy without help from the wood stove. In the summer the home was cool because of the planned overhang. The active element consisted of air collectors on the south facing roof and rock storage in the basement. Because of a design flaw that could not be corrected, reverse thermo siphoning cooled the rock storage at night leaving low grade heat that was of no value during the winter months. The active solar part was removed before selling the home in 1990.
Throughout the years the Nauglers have owned a number of homes and have done energy upgrades on all of them. In one renovation they installed in-floor heating, before in-floor heating was popular, with R20 insulation under the slab when engineers advised that R10 was adequate. Win has worked with many persons and groups in the interests of energy efficiency and education.
Janis and Win took Solar Nova Scotia’s, Solar Home Design Course during the winter of 2009. The course renewed their interest in solar energy and Win convinced his son Tim to take the Solar Construction Course with him in April 09. It didn’t take very much to get Tim enthused about the benefits of passive solar design. Shortly after that Janis and Win moved to Fredericton and joined forces with Tim to form Southern Exposure Construction Inc. with the goal of designing and building energy efficient homes. Tim introduced Janis and Win to Passive House and they were not long deciding to build a home to meet passive house standards. Here we go again!
