The most cost-effective approach to heat your home is through passive solar heating. Simply put, passive solar heating design keeps summer sun out and allows winter sun in, while ensuring that the building envelope retains that heat inside in the winter and enables any built-up heat to leave in the summer.
Orientation, thermal mass, sealing, and other factors all play a role in the construction of a passive solar-heated home. Because most climates need both passive heating and cooling, reading this page in conjunction with Design for climate (to establish your climatic zone) and Passive cooling is recommended.
Passive cooling is the most cost-effective method of cooling your house. Passive cooling systems must cool both the home and the people inside it to be effective, using components including air movement, evaporative cooling, and thermal mass.
Passive cooling design approaches may be used in new construction as well as renovations in a variety of climatic zones. All areas require some sort of passive heating in the winter, therefore study this article in combination with Design for climate and Passive heating.