Browse Forums Eco Living Re: Glazing to Mass ratio for a U shaped house 2Oct 16, 2017 5:36 am Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Glazing to Mass ratio for a U shaped house 7Oct 18, 2017 12:58 am Take a look at Vergola's or Lourvetec - you will probably end up quite well with a similar solution instead of cutting a hole in the alfresco - I don't think structural engineers will allow it that way. I would probably remove alfresco completely and just put in a retractable roofing all the way from the house boundary up to the kitchen - it will look much better this way. You would need to use hip-and-valley type of a roof for your house in this case. You won't be getting much heat in the winter to your bedroom 3 and lounge, but may be this is not the worst thing as it is okay to put bedrooms to the southern side in order to keep them cooler, but do consider investing into a decent heating solution for this area. Also, your thermal mass calcs won't be making much sense over there, too. Do focus on maximising the northern part thermal mass though - I believe you would need to plan to have a concrete slab with tiles or polished concrete over there in order to maximise the mass. I would be also worried about extensive southern wall glazing in your northern area (facing family room) - you will be losing tons of heat through those glass doors over there. Consider double glazing there and reducing glazing dimensions. Rule of the thumb re thermal mass to glazing is 6 to 1 but variations of up to 8 to 1 can be possible. However, your can't count the full northern facing floor area for thermal mass as the window sun will be falling on the floor at certain angle and the flooring beyond this angle won't be hit with the direct sunlight. To understand better, you should be running the calc depending on the length of your eaves/shading and the height of your glazing, to understand what will be the area for thermal mass calcs. By the way, my initial set up (and orientation) was very similar to yours (double storey though), but later I have decided to get rid of the court yard and make the house L-shaped (with very thick horisontal line and very tiny and thin vertical line in L) instead in order to maximise direct sun light to the front yard and to my kitchen and dining area. Re: Glazing to Mass ratio for a U shaped house 8Oct 18, 2017 7:14 am I will check out those companies. I have changed the courtyards sliding doors into 2x french doors. They are currently 2.4m high as i'm not too keen on 2.1m. I asked about double glazing and the cost was pretty big (won't have budget for much else). So now we're planning to go low-e and make do with it.... maybe look at double glazing just all the doors and windows in the main living area at the back of the house... Thanks for your input! This is one of the reasons I decided to go overseas for my double glazed windows. As the builder indicated, he's worked on many upmarket builds, these were the most well… 13 19244 For your reference Performance Labels: Window assemblies in housing, except timber windows, must be labelled so the label can be seen when it is in situ. For timber… 6 7716 You’re on the right track, wire brush in a grinder then a zinc rich epoxy primer then a top coat of some sort, like a waterproofing membrane. Raising the concrete would… 1 7031 |