House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter
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I agree with SunnyT. Basically if you want solar passive principles you need to look at your main living areas and pick a plan which gives you the desired north orientation for these...The garage is taking up all that great warm northern aspect which could be living area....but if this is a narrow lot then you haven't much choice where it goes...? Can we also see the plan on the lot please?
This is a great forum topic.
There is a calculator tool at the following location that calculates the width of your eaves in your area.
http://www.ecowho.com/tools/passive_solar_eaves_calculator.php
I have just signed my building papers and have been collecting information on solar buildings for a couple of years.
Will put my desing and details up once I get going.
Cheers,
Tippy Toes
There is a calculator tool at the following location that calculates the width of your eaves in your area.
http://www.ecowho.com/tools/passive_solar_eaves_calculator.php
I have just signed my building papers and have been collecting information on solar buildings for a couple of years.
Will put my desing and details up once I get going.
Cheers,
Tippy Toes
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!).
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!).
I was planning to owner build so changes is very flexible as i'm still in the planing stage of the floor plans with my architect this is the first draft he drew up for me.... my frontage is about 15.8 m facing North of course lol.. i was planning to put the lounge/display room at front and a double garage at the front.
the bedroom most likely be on one side... and the living area on the other.... what is your advice T?
With a narrow North facing frontage you are limited.....-what is the depth of your block?
quote="SunshineT"]
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?
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?
here is the house plan guys...[/quote]
Moving plans on to this page
http://www.flickr.com/photos/84856491@N08/7764683742/
Hi everyone,
This is my house plan. I have done everything I can to make it energy efficient. It will have solar panels on the roof.
Okay, I know it is small, but it is my little retirement home on it's own suburban block of 450sqm. I intend to have a permaculture garden also.
It will be facing north on the block, so the bottom of the pic is facing north.
Cheers,
Tippy Toes
Hi everyone,
This is my house plan. I have done everything I can to make it energy efficient. It will have solar panels on the roof.
Okay, I know it is small, but it is my little retirement home on it's own suburban block of 450sqm. I intend to have a permaculture garden also.
It will be facing north on the block, so the bottom of the pic is facing north.
Cheers,
Tippy Toes
Looks lovely for a retirment home TT..
BTW- you aren't on another Forum as Nannamac are you?
BTW- you aren't on another Forum as Nannamac are you?
mr chook - OK! That is good to know that you are flexible. Some project builders aren't. I think there are some challenges with your design, so I am going to think on it and make some suggestions tomorrow. Are there any 'must haves' with your design?
BTW- you aren't on another Forum as Nannamac are you?
I have used that before, but I have been ill over the last eighteen months and when I came back on forums I had forgotten most of my sign in names and passwords.
I have been on this forum before and it possibly was under Nannamac!
I have used that before, but I have been ill over the last eighteen months and when I came back on forums I had forgotten most of my sign in names and passwords.
I have been on this forum before and it possibly was under Nannamac!
PM'd you.
Musn't be you though!
Musn't be you though!
I agree with SunnyT. Basically if you want solar passive principles you need to look at your main living areas and pick a plan which gives you the desired north orientation for these...The garage is taking up all that great warm northern aspect which could be living area....but if this is a narrow lot then you haven't much choice where it goes...? Can we also see the plan on the lot please?
my lot is facing north so how the plan, is layout of my house on the lot facing north and my back yard is facing south.
Mr-chook-
For a start I would consider flipping the design totally and using eaves over the bedrooms ( which would then be on the western side)-as they would be close to the boundary minimum sun would hit them in the summer.
I would also think about then tweaking the theatre/alfresco so that the alfresco was then on the Eastern side and the theatre on the southern. This would have the alfresco in the shade in the afternoon/evening during the summer months ( which is when you would use it more)....
For a start I would consider flipping the design totally and using eaves over the bedrooms ( which would then be on the western side)-as they would be close to the boundary minimum sun would hit them in the summer.
I would also think about then tweaking the theatre/alfresco so that the alfresco was then on the Eastern side and the theatre on the southern. This would have the alfresco in the shade in the afternoon/evening during the summer months ( which is when you would use it more)....
mr chook - I have been thinking about your plan a lot and I have to say I am quite stumped by it. I think there are several problems with it, mainly that it will be very dark in the living areas. At a minimum I would:
1. Put a living room up where the master bed is (so that you have living facing north).
2. Make a shallower porch so that the porch is not taking all the northern sun.
3. If you like that long alley style (with kitchen flowing into dining into loung etc.) why not consider doing this all along the Eastern side so that you can flow on from the living area at the front (where the Master is). I would then do as Dee has suggested and put the bedrooms on the West.
Sorry, I feel like all I can suggest are radical changes, but I do feel like the solar orientation of your design could be improved. Good on you for being brave enough to ask and to be thinking about this.
1. Put a living room up where the master bed is (so that you have living facing north).
2. Make a shallower porch so that the porch is not taking all the northern sun.
3. If you like that long alley style (with kitchen flowing into dining into loung etc.) why not consider doing this all along the Eastern side so that you can flow on from the living area at the front (where the Master is). I would then do as Dee has suggested and put the bedrooms on the West.
Sorry, I feel like all I can suggest are radical changes, but I do feel like the solar orientation of your design could be improved. Good on you for being brave enough to ask and to be thinking about this.
Cool, but notice they don't say anything about the price of such a design.
Yeah, unfortunately the price of things like that will continue to be disproportionately high until there's enough demand to justify mass production of some description. I have wondered, over these last few months of house-hunting stuff, whether it'd be enough of a poiint-of-differentiation for one of the project-home builders to offer proper real smartly-designed houses as part of their range; not just showing in a bit of extra insulation and some double-glazing, but maybe just a set of standard designs that're optimised for (I dunno) 8 basic possibilities for your block's street-frontage facing (ie. N, NW, W, SW, etc). That range would obviously cost a bit more than the base-price on a similar-sized design that curerntly exists; but given how many people are willing to pay extra on top of a less-well-suited basic design to try & embiggen their houses' "green cred", you'd think there'd still be a market for it (and it'd have to be cheaper than tacking extra "green" stuff onto a "non green" design).
Over the past few days, I have been wondering the same thing. Design for different block orientation and promote the ongoing savings made through passive thermal design.
Would also help if there were stricter guidelines imposed on developers who seem to love making skinny north/south blocks. Every time I look at a new estate I find myself looking for the west facing blocks with all that glorious northern exposure. Thanks to homeone I won't even consider a block that doesnt have favourable passive solar orientation. Another thing I've noticed is that often the estate encumbrances call for the garage to be on the north side, which to me is ludicrous. It seems like there is so much onus placed on the owner to meet all these efficiency criteria, while being let down by the powers that be in poor planning etc.
I agree with SunnyT. Basically if you want solar passive principles you need to look at your main living areas and pick a plan which gives you the desired north orientation for these...The garage is taking up all that great warm northern aspect which could be living area....but if this is a narrow lot then you haven't much choice where it goes...? Can we also see the plan on the lot please?
my lot is facing north so how the plan, is layout of my house on the lot facing north and my back yard is facing south.
Hi Mr Chook,
The only thing I can suggest is to have a look at what Positive Footprints did with this house in Altona:
http://www.positivefootprints.com.au/tr ... house.html
They weren't in quite the same situation because the back was facing north but you could adapt their idea of having a kind of central dome with clerestory windows to bring light into the back of the house. Worth a look.
I was thinking along the same lines Lilliana, maybe a series of skillion roofs with hilight windows all facing north.
Thank guys for all the help guys.. I will redraw the plan and swap everything around and update u guys...
Would also help if there were stricter guidelines imposed on developers who seem to love making skinny north/south blocks. Every time I look at a new estate I find myself looking for the west facing blocks with all that glorious northern exposure. Thanks to homeone I won't even consider a block that doesnt have favourable passive solar orientation. Another thing I've noticed is that often the estate encumbrances call for the garage to be on the north side, which to me is ludicrous. It seems like there is so much onus placed on the owner to meet all these efficiency criteria, while being let down by the powers that be in poor planning etc.
I so totally agree!
I often notice how real estate agents specifically describe some properties as north facing but they don't make a big deal about south, east or west facing. I'm talking about 'facing' meaning where the street is. It's like they understand north facing is a selling point but they don't understand why. A north facing garage door, front door and one window gives you NO BENEFIT!
Tippy Toes, that's a great sensible little house. I'm loving the permaculture garden idea too.
I so totally agree!
I often notice how real estate agents specifically describe some properties as north facing but they don't make a big deal about south, east or west facing. I'm talking about 'facing' meaning where the street is. It's like they understand north facing is a selling point but they don't understand why. A north facing garage door, front door and one window gives you NO BENEFIT!
.[/quote]
Exactly, reps who aren't trained wave around a few catchphrases here and there just to get a sale. It's best to ask a prospective builder if they have a rep trained in solar passive principles. If not, try to choose a builder who does and read up on it as much as you can yourself. After all builders can use any other plan and put your own alterations onto it, thus the very similar designs we see around with just a few internal or external variations...
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