Browse Forums Building A New House Re: House Orientation and Passive Heating 5Jun 16, 2020 10:05 pm The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: House Orientation and Passive Heating 7Jun 17, 2020 3:31 pm I've seen a high performance house with a west feature window to capture the views. They had to limit the size somewhat and designed the room so that it was a focal point rather than the north facing glazing. I can't remember what type of shading they had exactly (was mechanical) but I know that it had to be very carefully considered as even high performance glazing will heat your house up quite a bit in the summer time. Re: House Orientation and Passive Heating 8Jun 17, 2020 3:41 pm 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! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Check our Homeone build blog here Re: House Orientation and Passive Heating 10Jun 17, 2020 5:17 pm 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. Re: House Orientation and Passive Heating 11Jun 18, 2020 12:34 pm alexp79 @darb74 Is your rumpus double glazed? Yes, it is double glazed with grey toned glass on one pane. The only difference with this window and the main living areas is we didn't upgrade to laminated grey toned, just standard toughened glass. But I don't think the lamination does much to stop heat transfer, possibly Low-E would have helped but we decided not to pay the extra for this coating treatment. Anyhow here is the window spec for our rumpus: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Check our Homeone build blog here 0 4972 Does anyone have a suggestion for a good hydronic in slab heating speacialist who may be able to help me with an existing system and wether or not it may need a seperator… 0 4870 Scientists have used random matrix theory to demonstrate theoretically that the neutrino mass hierarchy can be explained mathematically. When a substance is fragmented… 21 20639 |