House Orientation and Passive Heating

So the floor plan and orientation are fixed?

I would say the only way you get any passive solar heating is if you orientate the living and kitchen North and do away with a solid veranda and alfresco. You obviously wont get any views to the west so the floor plan is only going to get you one or the other.

I would go with a completely different floor plan if you want to have both.

If you're considering passive solar then you would ideally have very minimal glazing facing west or cleverly designed shading.

Hi Robbo14, Like the others have said this current plan/orientation will provide virtually no passive solar heating unfortunately.

So you have some hard decisions to make. If it was East views you were chasing then arguably not quite as bad as West....but almost! You need to decide how much the economic and comfort benefits of a different orientation you are willing to sacrifice in order to capture the views. The plan isn't terrible if you simply rotated it north, but you would need to get rid of the roof and consider the slight wall articulations on both sides.

In terms of house plans and capturing some of the west view, the only way I could imagine it working would be a north facing (rectangular) living area with kitchen on west side.....and a short, but wide 'viewing' window running the length of the kitchen bench between the benchtop and overhead cabinets. At least then you would have a decent view out to the West but by the nature of the reduced window height (say around 800-900mm?) it would limit the 'damage' done during summer. That one window could also be treated with a Low-E coating etc.

I think longer term you would regret prioritising the views over the comfort/economic benefits you would otherwise gain from a different setup.

We designed our living zones in our new house to capture winter sun, and I must say the result in terms of living comfort and not needing to run heaters is amazing. I just wish we could have had more of our house facing north.

 The living zones in our house pretty much have needed no heating so far this
year...and we live in a cold climate (Ballarat, Vic).

The only negative is the rest of the house doesn't get the solar gain, so a few nights we have been turning on a small split system in the Rumpus room and it does a pretty good job of warming the mid zone (we close the door typically b/w living and main hallway)Like  ⋅  Add a comment  ⋅  Pin to Ideaboard  ⋅  Share

Only you can decide what is best for you, but continuing with the general advice others have suggested whatever you do DO NOT underestimate how much summer heat gain you will experience whenever the sun is hitting glass directly. Also the aluminium frames will contribute to the energy losses.

We reduced our west window heights to what I thought was reasonable and used a grey tone treatment, but still our rumpus room window (1200mm h x 2200mm w) caused enough grief last summer I am now organising for external awnings to go on all those west windows (ensuite, rumpus and Bed4).

I also have spoken to people who have Low-E glass facing west and they still report fairly severe summer heat issues. Glazing treatments can only achieve small benefits in my opinion....stopping the sun hitting the glass is the best option.

At least you are considering all this and asking questions. Many people don't, including us with past builds!

You need some sort of vertical external shading, like hinged fins or shutters. This would allow you to enjoy the view but adjust the angle of the shade to block out the sun at its worst. Horizontal shading like roofs and eaves won’t help when the setting sun is low and shining straight under the overhang.