Browse Forums Building A New House Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 244Aug 12, 2012 7:48 pm Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 245Aug 12, 2012 7:49 pm mr_chook quote="SunshineT"] mr_chook 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? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ here is the house plan guys...[/quote] Moving plans on to this page Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 246Aug 12, 2012 8:16 pm 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 Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 247Aug 12, 2012 8:23 pm Looks lovely for a retirment home TT.. BTW- you aren't on another Forum as Nannamac are you? Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 248Aug 12, 2012 8:25 pm 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? SunshineT's Build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34585 Designs start: 4/12/09 DA: 5/7/11 Demo: 22/12/11 Slab: 24/2/12 Keys: 31/8/12 Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 249Aug 12, 2012 8:47 pm BTW- you aren't on another Forum as Nannamac are you? [/quote] 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! Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 250Aug 12, 2012 8:50 pm PM'd you. Musn't be you though! Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 251Aug 13, 2012 8:09 pm Treeseachanger 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. Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 252Aug 13, 2012 8:18 pm 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).... Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 253Aug 13, 2012 10:03 pm 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. SunshineT's Build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34585 Designs start: 4/12/09 DA: 5/7/11 Demo: 22/12/11 Slab: 24/2/12 Keys: 31/8/12 Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 254Aug 13, 2012 11:21 pm Forg Treeseachanger 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. 2010, June : Land bought (1700sqm, battleaxe block). That's it so far! We're in the design phase .... Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 255Aug 14, 2012 7:00 am 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. Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 256Aug 14, 2012 8:54 am mr_chook Treeseachanger 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. Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 259Aug 14, 2012 3:09 pm Bayview 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. Re: House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter 260Aug 14, 2012 8:02 pm JazzyJess 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... 0 634 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 7035 How good is Simeon?! Always taking time to help others out! Wish we were building in NSW and could work together. Thanks for all that you do! 7 6585 |