Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 09, 2016 9:28 am Just after some opinions on these floor plans. With heating and cooling not so much of a concern (we'll need to use them no matter how efficiently we plan the house- hot in summer, freezing in winter), we want to ensure the kitchen/living areas aren't going to be too dark. This one appeals to me because the entire back area is open. We would, however, flip the front bedrooms/garage somehow so the garage is on the east side. The specifics there aren't too important at this stage. I'm more focused on the back- would it be a mistake for all bedrooms to be facing south and all living facing north? http://mcdonaldjoneshomes.com.au/home-d ... san-marino The next one appeals to me because while the back is still quite open, the west side of the house would get more westerly sun, including the bedrooms/laundry etc. http://www.clarendon.com.au/nsw/home-de ... alkeith-29 Any other suggestions would be really appreciated. Re: Best rear north aspect floor plan 3May 13, 2016 11:25 am I would have thought that if you get very hot and cold conditions, then heating and cooling would be all the more important. Either way, you're getting a reasonable amount of northern sun in for winter, though for the first one it would be better to move the window in the theatre to the north (though it may not work as well as a "theatre" then). For the benefit of winter, it's also beneficial to have a high thermal mass floor (eg. tiles) in the rooms with northen windows, so that mass can be heated up by the sun during the day, and keep the house warm overnight. But on a cold sunny day if you're at home, it can be nice to have a room you can relax in with a big northen window and soak up the radiant heat. As long as you move the theatre window in the 1st one, both of these have that. I'd try to avoid western windows to bedrooms. The reason is that in summer the western sun will heat up those rooms in the late afternoon, and it's hard to get to sleep without running an aircon into the night. In winter it can be nice for the bedroom to be warm of an evening, but young kids can have problems as the temperature drops more through the night than it would in an eastern bedroom. If you rug them up enough at the start of the night they are too hot at the start, or if you don't they end up too cold later on. I'm not really a fan of a southern bedrooms in winter, but they do stay cooler in summer. In winter you would at least get some sun into the nook and bathroom to help warm and dry the area. In the 2nd plan you'd want double glazing in the window above the bed, or you get cold air cooled by the window and falling onto the bed. Re: Best rear north aspect floor plan 4May 14, 2016 1:35 pm Thanks so much John for taking the time to reply. We're leaning towards the first option because of the bedrooms to the front. I think the heat in summer has more of an impact on sleeping than the cold does in winter, ie we need to use the air con more in summer than the heater in winter and sleeping in a cooler room is easier than a hot one. It also has the rear of the house more open to the north. I guess with a direct north facing rear yard, and extremes of heat in summer and cold in winter, something is going to have to be sacrificed. I feel like it's impossible to get it all perfect. Re: Best rear north aspect floor plan 5May 17, 2016 8:38 am I agree with onejohn. Efficient design is even more important for the extremes you face to save you money on electrical bills. Orientation is critical and you should be able to design for this. Check out undercover architect webpage/blog. She is all about orientation and light and efficient design. You should get some great tips from it. Re: Best rear north aspect floor plan 6May 19, 2016 12:12 pm I'll echo the other guys thoughts, in a climate that will need plenty of heating & cooling an efficient design is even more important! Not only will it dramatically reduce your energy bills (for heating & cooling), it will make your house much more comfortable to live in. An efficient design is mainly about getting the orientation right (building to passive design principles). Check this very good website, run by the Aussie government, http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation Just3ofus would it be a mistake for all bedrooms to be facing south and all living facing north? As long as you have appropriate length eaves (this is very important), don't worry about summer sun coming through those northern windows. The sun is higher in the sky in summer, so your eaves will shade your northern windows. In summer sunlight from the east & west is more of a problem, as the sun is lower in the sky, & can't be shaded by eaves. Western windows are particularly bad in summer, letting in sun at the warmest time of the day. Eliminating western windows, is a very good idea. Unfortunately, with so many urban blocks being quite narrow, you end up with a long narrow houses. With a block with a northern backyard, you end up with long eastern & western walls. So eliminating western windows becomes impossible. However, you should try to minimize them. I'd echo OneJohn's thoughts, bedrooms with western windows can become VERY hot, so I'd eliminate these if possible. The San Marino looks like a pretty good plan (& OneJohn's advice to relocate the media room window to the north is a good one), better than the Dalkeith. However the master bedroom will be blasted by afternoon sunshine in summer. If possible, I'd place all bedrooms on the east side, keeping them away from the hot western sun. Just3ofus We would, however, flip the front bedrooms/garage somehow so the garage is on the east side. So I'd aim for living areas to the north (& west if necessary). All bedrooms to the east (& south). Garage, laundry, bathrooms to the west (alfresco probably in the NW corner). Hard to achieve, especially with quite narrow blocks, but something along these lines should be possible...... Will you be regularly using all bedrooms? Maybe not, with a username like Just3ofus? If one of the bedrooms is an infrequently used spare bedroom, one option may be to put this to the western side. For the San Marino floor plan, you could do this by flipping the back half of the floor plan. Resulting in Bed 2 (spare room), family/living room & alfresco moving to the western side. While the home theatre & master (plus ensuite) moves to the east, a much better place for the master. One of many possibilities. Re: Best rear north aspect floor plan 7May 30, 2016 2:46 pm Ddarroch thank you for taking the time to give such a detailed reply. I really appreciate it. The reason we want the garage on the eastern side is because we're adding a third garage. While it's not ideal, it is more ideal than having that huge amount of dead space down the western side of the house by adding the third on that side! We're going to remove the big doors from the master and put in a window instead. My husband works night shift so we will have external roller shutters on the window- hoping this will reduce the afternoon heat in summer. If we flip the back half of the house, won't we then have our living areas and alfresco facing west? We have that in our current house- dark in the mornings and hot box in the afternoons in summer Hi All, see above image. The required setback from the rear boundary in my case is 5m, as you can see the shape of the site and location of the boundary is slightly… 0 8463 i thought the flipped plan initially but bec i want narrow pathway from entry to dining (dont like bend), also cannot fit the… 7 17286 |