Browse Forums General Discussion Re: house facing north ? 7Aug 15, 2012 8:31 am Mr chook I have a house very similar to yours with garage, main bedroom, one liveing room faceing front, casual liveing areas down one side and my block is north faceing like yours - I would strongly suggest you flip the house around, thats what we did, so the large liveing area faces east and we have a large alfresco outside the sliding doors - you do NOT want an alfresco faceing west or large window or even worse large glass doors (because they are harder to shade than windows and still have access through them during the day) Avoid the afternoon sun both for heat resaons and also glare reasons - the morning sun is much gentler so an east faceing liveing areas and alfresco is not a problem. The bedrooms faceing west wont be such a problem - a) bedroom windows are easy to shade and b) people dont spend much afternoon time in bedrooms anyway, as a rule and c) your sliding doors to alfresco will go from the casual liveing area I assume, certainly not through a minor bedroom. I dont think he needs to buy another block or design another house - he will have windows faceing north - ie the front bedroom and the front liveing room and simple flipping of the house solves the other problems. Re: house facing north ? 9Aug 15, 2012 9:09 am I've posted for you on the custom design-but I'll put one of my scratchy mockups here: Deemaree Something like this? You could swap theatre & verandah-but by having the verandah like this it can be paved and allow car parking if required. http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz27/deemareeinwinslow/chook-1.jpg Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: house facing north ? 11Aug 17, 2012 6:11 pm mr_chook Thanks alot for all the helps guys, just wanted to ask what is an ideal block of land supposed to face for good passive solar design? South ? for narrow blocks ? The ideal block depends entirely on the house design. Passive solar design isn't just about orientation though, it takes into account all sorts of things like building materials and thermal mass, window size and placement, eaves, verandahs and pergolas. Climate comes into it too - obviously you wouldn't build the same house in Cairns as you would in Hobart. There's lots of info available online...this site has downloadable fact sheets: http://www.yourhome.gov.au/technical/fs41.html. This one covers orientation: http://www.yourhome.gov.au/technical/fs43.html Re: house facing north ? 12Aug 17, 2012 6:14 pm The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: house facing north ? 13Aug 17, 2012 9:42 pm mr_chook Thanks alot for all the helps guys, just wanted to ask what is an ideal block of land supposed to face for good passive solar design? South ? for narrow blocks ? Those are good links people have given you. There's more to it which you'll understand when you read through that information, but the big thing to remember is you need maximum north facing windows and minimum other facing windows. In summer the sun is high overhead so the north facing windows won't get sun coming in. In winter the sun is low in the sky so the north facing windows will get sun coming in. Those websites have diagrams which show how it works. Having lots of big windows facing in other directions might be undesirable because you get hot afternoon sun in the west, perhaps cold winds from the south, etc, but there are things you can do to fix that like plant deciduous trees and windbreak hedges. But the big thing to remember is you want to catch the sun in winter and block it in summer and north facing windows with eaves work really well for that. Re: house facing north ? 14Aug 17, 2012 10:46 pm If my house is facing north.. isnt it better to put the living area like.dinning,living and kitchen on da west and bedroom on da east because we all go work during the day and won't get home until 3 to 6 so the dinning and living wont be use until the late arvo, by the time we come home living area will be cold in winter that's if its on east side, but if the living area was on the west the living area will heat up and hopefully still be warm when we come home. And on da living area side I'm gonna put like colourbond carpot so it.will.block out all the sun in winnter or summer. Re: house facing north ? 15Aug 17, 2012 11:31 pm In the winter the sun doesn,t really shine much in the east and west facing windows. You loose more heat through these windows over the day than the benefit from the short period of sun coming in. If you you put shade like a carport you will get zero benefit from the winter sun. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. The warning is on the sticker on the door too. Second the aluminium powdercoat 6 18200 Petercurtis You able to contact the certifier and get a copy of your structural plans, if they are not in your contract. If your home was approved via CDC then they… 1 20175 It might be a bit darker in the mornings but the light is still light, so you should be getting it. Similar to what you see from your western windows 3 19988 |