Hi bill.
Thanks for the input. do you have any 'good' books to recommend? There are so many, its hard to choose.
 
On this design, in theory anyway, it will be isolated heat wise from the rest of the structure.
Only when heat is desired will it have any influence on the inside temperature.
My goal is to create  a heat sink  large enough to basically heat the home by solar alone. (Not withstanding long periods of overcast weather of course).  We have been lucky weather-wise here in New England over the last few years, but generally its pretty cold around here. Windy too!

It is the back wall that i need to insulate, while retaining its thermal mass.
Upon building a scale model, ( 1" = 1' ) i have tried a few changes, one of which would involve moving the collector out about 4'.
That too opens up other challenges. :-)

Intransit

I read your openning statement on the design and I must be a little daft because I cannot quite picture it. Anyway, James Kachadorian's book "Passive Solar House" for one. I mentioned it as well is one of the recent links on calcuating solar mass. It discusses heat loss etc through earth covered walls etc. There are others out there, but this one gives you worksheets to come up with numbers that you can understand.

I think it was mentioned earlier that if you insulate the wall you will loose it's thermal storage capability. There is a trade-off here. There is always a Trombe wall if you have the room. Still, you have to be careful about overheating. There is many a discussion about having to open windows during the day just so you can use the room, even though it is very cold outside. Anyway, this is a good book to give you some concepts about what is going on with passive solar.

Bill

The link mentioned above isn't shown . How do I get link.

Heat collecting room is interesting but I'll be building on a lake lot, southern exp direct to lake so I want maximum views. I'll probably just have overhangs/awning for summer.

I am a President of Solar Energy Development Foundation,local NGO and I would like to receive more information about solar and wind power.

In my current home I have 2 thermometers outside, one on an east window by front door and one on west. This morning the west(in shade) read -22, and the east(with sun) read +20. Amazing. I can open my front door (brown) and feel a blast of heat in between the dark front door and the glass storm door. I leave the front door open and the sun heats my slate kitchen floor even at this cold temp. Every new building should be designed for at least passive solar. It's exciting to keep working on my new home design with these ideas.