Browse Forums Building A New House Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 221Jun 15, 2012 8:00 pm SunshineT's Build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34585 Designs start: 4/12/09 DA: 5/7/11 Demo: 22/12/11 Slab: 24/2/12 Keys: 31/8/12 Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 223Jun 15, 2012 8:07 pm SunshineT's Build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34585 Designs start: 4/12/09 DA: 5/7/11 Demo: 22/12/11 Slab: 24/2/12 Keys: 31/8/12 Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 224Jun 15, 2012 8:55 pm Hi SunshineT your photo looks familiar! Its very similar to our design. I can add skillion to my vocab now. Our house comprises two wings linked by an approx 3 metre glass sliding door corridor. The objective of the corridor is to allow sunlight through to the south side of house. The south side of houses here in my part of NZ, can get very dank and manky in winter. That is indeed a chimney Dreamcometrue. Its pretty massive! We're going to leave it in its natural state and allow it to dominate our lives for the next 25 years Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 225Jun 16, 2012 12:18 am SunshineT It gets even more confusing - some people still have raked ceilings with a pitched roof (not so common, but where they follow the roof line with no cavity). I think this describes the roof line of our design. Pitched roof with raked ceilings except we do have a cavity. Also any straight roof coming off a roof line as a verandah or overhang is also called a skillion, (as opposed to a bullnose or pitched roof verandah, for instance.) Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 226Jun 16, 2012 8:44 am SunshineT Hi Forg Thanks for that. I realised earlier that I had skimmed the thread (and therefore missed the more detailed discussion and comments you had offered over the past few days). DH and I have read more tonight and researched (beyond H1 too - DH is a tad sceptical ) and outcome: no covers for the downlights, will get LEDs (GU10 fittings) and over the weekend will see if we can add more insulation to reduce the gaps. We are also considering reducing the number of downlights anyway and converting to normal lights so there is no issue with insulation. As back-up above our R3.5 batts we have anti-con blanket as well (ie. sarking and R1.5batts) so not all is lost. Thanks for your reply. Ceiling spaces can get to 70 degrees in summer, at this temp expect your exposed LED's to start dying, also with 200mm gaps all through your ceiling your insulation becomes next to useless. LED's don't emit that much heat so it's more about keeping the ceiling heat away from the lights, you can get cone shaped downlight covers made of insulation type material- insulates the light from the high temp ceiling while also closing all those insulation gaps. Build Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=57639 Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 227Jun 16, 2012 8:55 am Forg I must admit, when I was first thinking about these holes in the insulation caused by having downlights flush-mounted, I was probably thinking the effect was worse than it really is. I was thinking that the holes were like little chimneys, sucking warm air out the holes. I guess the reality is there's little air-movement at all, you don't actually lose that much air flowing throught the downlight gaps; and without air-movement, you're only concerned with how much heat radiates through the ceiling & the insulation. In other words, the amount of heat that gets out is ... well, it's like how much light shines through a small hole in a piece of metal if you shine a torch at it, compared to how much light is blocked by the metal. I think in my mind I was thinking of it more as being like a small hole in the bottom of a bucket; but it's not, because it's not "air flowing out" it's "heat radiating out". If that makes sense. No Air Movement? Hot air rises remember. Build Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=57639 Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 228Jun 16, 2012 10:02 am plucka LED's don't emit that much heat so it's more about keeping the ceiling heat away from the lights, you can get cone shaped downlight covers made of insulation type material- insulates the light from the high temp ceiling while also closing all those insulation gaps. LED manufacturers say NOT to use these covers, they claim it reduces their life; they generate enough of their own heat to hurt themselves if you trap that heat in. It seems like a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation to me; you either have LED's blowing every 5 minutes, or your ceiling leaks heat like a sieve. Or ... you ditch downlights altogether. Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 229Jun 16, 2012 11:22 am Insulation and LEDs is discussed on this topic in the forum. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=56172 There's also a link to an article which I'm just about to read....I didn't think about the insulation when we did our lighting plan, but obviously neither did our consultant... I wish builders were better educated, our sales rep told us of a passive solar course they had all completed but obviously it was only the general principles and not an in-depth study. The link below is a Choice review of LEDs vs CFLs. http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and-te ... bulbs.aspx An interesting sentence: “CFLs are not completely green in every way, but on balance they have a much lower impact than incandescents,” according to the Australian Conservation Foundation". So they are definitely a step forward. Hopefully the technology behind LEDs will also improve as time goes on and the insulation dilemma will be solved! Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 230Jun 16, 2012 3:12 pm Forg Or ... you ditch downlights altogether. I've decided that this is the way to go. There are plenty of non-downlight options, and cast a more efficient light for the same energy. Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 231Jun 16, 2012 10:26 pm If it is of any help / interest, here is a pic of our lounge area with small areas cut out in the ceiling insulation where the downlights are supposed to go. Still thinking on solutions, but we have anti-con blanket above this again. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ SunshineT's Build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34585 Designs start: 4/12/09 DA: 5/7/11 Demo: 22/12/11 Slab: 24/2/12 Keys: 31/8/12 Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 233Aug 12, 2012 2:23 pm hi all, just wanted to ask for some advice my block of land is facing North and im in the process of designing the house plans so i put the bedrooms and shower on the east side ? and the living area like kitchen,dinning, rumpus and cinema room on the west ? or should i wrap it around ? thanks for the help Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 234Aug 12, 2012 3:07 pm Hi mr chook. . . There's a thread on custom house designs. . . Are you able to post your plan there? http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=33027&start=1480 Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 235Aug 12, 2012 3:34 pm mr_chook hi all, just wanted to ask for some advice my block of land is facing North and im in the process of designing the house plans so i put the bedrooms and shower on the east side ? and the living area like kitchen,dinning, rumpus and cinema room on the west ? or should i wrap it around ? thanks for the help Hello. Important question - please post your plans (and how your proposed house sits on your block), but in a nutshell: no, living areas face North. On the West have as few windows as possible. So living, lounge, kitchen, dining etc. as much of the public living areas facing North. Reduce windows on the East and definitely reduce windows on the West. South will be darker. Where are you building by the way and what is the climate? SunshineT's Build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34585 Designs start: 4/12/09 DA: 5/7/11 Demo: 22/12/11 Slab: 24/2/12 Keys: 31/8/12 Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 236Aug 12, 2012 4:00 pm quote="SunshineT"] mr_chook hi all, just wanted to ask for some advice my block of land is facing North and im in the process of designing the house plans so i put the bedrooms and shower on the east side ? and the living area like kitchen,dinning, rumpus and cinema room on the west ? or should i wrap it around ? thanks for the help Hello. Important question - please post your plans (and how your proposed house sits on your block), but in a nutshell: no, living areas face North. On the West have as few windows as possible. So living, lounge, kitchen, dining etc. as much of the public living areas facing North. Reduce windows on the East and definitely reduce windows on the West. South will be darker. Where are you building by the way and what is the climate?[/quote] Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ here is the house plan guys... Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 237Aug 12, 2012 4:30 pm Mr chook - where are you building? tropical Queensland or cool Victoria? SunshineT's Build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34585 Designs start: 4/12/09 DA: 5/7/11 Demo: 22/12/11 Slab: 24/2/12 Keys: 31/8/12 Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 239Aug 12, 2012 4:56 pm Bang in the middle T! Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 240Aug 12, 2012 5:07 pm Dee - indeed! Mr chook - Sydney. well, at least you don't need to think about extreme climates. Building in Sydney means mostly trying to keep the house warm (so living areas facing north) etc. That is a challenging house plan you have posted, with living down the centre (which will be dark), so not ideal. Let me put my thinking cap on. Question: how flexible are you with this plan? Meaning, are you open to changes. This plan looks like it is from a company already - is this the case or can you customise the plans as much as you like??? (good to ask before making too many radical comments!). SunshineT's Build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34585 Designs start: 4/12/09 DA: 5/7/11 Demo: 22/12/11 Slab: 24/2/12 Keys: 31/8/12 Hi, This is my first post. We are planning to buy new home via House and Land (H&L) Package around Boxhill/Gables/Marsden Park in Syndey. Googled reviews for most of… 0 10446 Very good points. Thanks so much ponzutwo for your advice. Appreciate it. 2 10326 Hi all, Trying to workout the minimum stepdown required between slab for my house and the outdoor alfresco area. Garage is 100mm lower than rest of the house and plan was… 0 3649 |