orientation of house

Pennywise_75 · Nov 09, 2020 1:46 pm

Hi There

We have just purchased a block of land in Victor Harbour SA. Street frontage faces north, block is located in between two established home, home on the east side is a double story

Were wanting to build as energy efficient as possible on a budget.

I guess a starting point would be orientation of house, any thoughts of where bedrooms, living and carports should be facing?

Thanks in advance for any help

bluesteel · Nov 09, 2020 4:21 pm

This will be very helpful https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation

Aim for living areas to the north - bedrooms and wet areas to south or east and minimise any west facing - or put garage/carport there.
That webpage also has information about eaves etc

Good luck

darb74 · Nov 10, 2020 4:34 pm

Your limited with the frontage on the north, but at least keep the bedrooms off the west side, and put the garage there if possible.

If you look at plans consider going for something that has a 'court yard' in the centre (east side) between two living areas possibly. With no roof over the court yard you get a decent place to sit in the morning sun, then the living room adjacent will receive some decent winter sun.

From memory Hamlan Homes (Geelong based, VIC) had a plan, 'Erskine' from memory that had this type of design.

So basically for you I would focus on:

Minimal windows/doors on the west side...make them as 'short' as possible where they need to be there anyhow. We for example have our boys bedroom windows at ~1000mm tall (2200mm wide) and they are plenty big enough. One of our west spare rooms is only 900mm tall (2200mm wide) and also plenty of light for a bedroom at least
Keep the bedrooms off the west side
Incorporate a court yard to allow winter sun into at least one main living room
Then do what most passive houses are based on, and get as much into insulation, quality double glazing, air sealing etc as you can afford to.
For west and east side windows consider budgeting for external awnings.
Eaves are a must in my opinion. Ask for 600mm 'cantilevered' eaves instead of the standard crappy 400mm standard variety. Should pay no more than around $70 per lineal metre for the 'good' eaves.
Make sure your roof cavity is well ventilated (we now have 2 x powered AiroMatic whirly birds)

Good luck with your design and build.

ddarroch · Nov 10, 2020 9:09 pm

Pennywise_75

Hi There

We have just purchased a block of land in Victor Harbour SA. Street frontage faces north, block is located in between two established home, home on the east side is a double story

Were wanting to build as energy efficient as possible on a budget.

I guess a starting point would be orientation of house, any thoughts of where bedrooms, living and carports should be facing?

Thanks in advance for any help

You're a little late to the party. You really should have thought of this before purchasing your block.

Ideally you want your living areas, & a large proportion to face north. That can be tough to do for a northern frontage home. As most likely you'll have a garage that will block much of the northern light from the home.

All I'll say is locate your bedrooms to the south & east. Locate your garage on the western side, to protect some of the home from the hot afternoon summer sun. I suppose you'll have to face some of your living areas west, unfortunately.

Keep the roof simple, so that you have large roof areas available for solar.