Please Sign in or EcoWho Your guide to being Eco Friendly & Sustainable ET crit arAcotnt ARTICLES INFO > THE IMPORTANCE OF BUILDING ORIENTATION - PAGE 2 Although do remember glass tilted away from the vertical has much worse insulation qualities as it improves 3 its ability to interact with more new ‘airspace’ at once (think about the cooling effect and air dropping, being 9) suomit horizontal allows the glass to cool its whole area of new air at once; rather when vertical interacting with a 34 stack of cool to hot air ina room. Being horizontal reduces insulation qualities by about 50%. This is not silly reddit science, its a known effect, ask anyone who installs skylights for a living... or check out our online R-Value e tool). Therefore you will have to improve the insulation qualities of the glass to offset this effect in Winter. wie Energy saved through correct bu ig orientation It is reckoned that a correctly orientated passive solar building will reduce its energy consumption by 30 to 40 percent. When combined with additional qualities, like the right levels of insulation, this saving can be further boosted. For further advice on passive solar principals see this detailed article. Solar energy uses Something not to be forgotten is that a correctly orientated building will usually have a roof line running perfectly East to West. This is ideal for mounting on Solar water heater panels (Solar water heating article) or solar panels for electrical generation (Solar power article).You can also add on solar ‘air heaters’ or Trombe Walls to further utilize the Sun, You can even create a ‘solar greenhouse’ to trap solar heat within a conservatory joined to the house.How big should the dows be? This all comes down to three things: How ‘strong’ the sun comes into the room, which side of the house the window is on and the floor covering.. For North facing windows: If the solar access is good (i.e. nothing blocking the sun as it tracks across the sky) and the floors are concrete slab (or slab with tiles on them): 1. The area of the North facing windows should be large; somewhere between 10-15% of the building's total floor; and 2. The area of the North facing windows in each individual room can be up to 25% of the room's floor area. If the solar access is good and floors are timber: 1. The area of the North facing windows should be large; this time around 10% of the buildings total floor area, and 2. The area of North facing windows in each room can be up to 20% of the room's floor area. If it is the case that solar access is poor (i.e. lots of trees): 1. The area of the North facing windows be kept small; less than 8% of the total floor area, and 2. Keep the window area in each room I than 15% of the room's floor a For South facing windows: Keep the South facing windows small: 1. Total window area should be less than 5% of the total floor area. 2, Windows in individual rooms less than 15% of the room's floor area.For East facing windows: Less than 5% of the total floor area and 15% of the floor area of each room. For West facing windows: Less than 3% of the total floor area and less than 10% of the floor area of each room. Conclusion on building orientation Correct building orientation is critical to reducing your energy consumption and creating a living space that is naturally comfortable to live in. Also by reducing your energy consumption you are doing a lot to help the environment and live a more sustainable lifestyle. It something that every building should really take into account and utilize. Recommended Reading selection of books we recommend that will help you with using the Sun in your home. + The Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling by Daniel D. Chiras + Passive Solar House: The Complete Guide to Heating and Cooling Your Home by James Kachadorian + The Passive Solar Primer: Sustainable Architecture by David Wright Or visit the Passive Solar category in our Online Store for more books on the subject of Passive Solar. Related Articles and Links * Keeping cool in Summer and warm in Winter for free! - various techniques on keeping cool or warm for free. * What is Passive Solar? - explains whats passive solar is and how to achieve it in your house. * What is convection and how it effects your heating costs - how convection ‘steals' your heat and how to stop it. + What is a Trombe Wall and how can you use one? - how to use a Trombe Wall to provide heating (and cooling) for free. * Detailed analysis of why building orientation is so important * Solar Power - the facts about setting it up + Build Green for Lifelong SavingsRelated Tags: building orientation, passive solar, sustainable architecture, sustainable design, home, home design, passive design Pages: 1 2 Related Listings: Insulation, Green Architects We Ke Ke Ke he (2.98 out of 5) from 61 ratings, Rate Now! 111 people tke this. Be the fst of your frends. ‘What Now? Leave Comment... Email friend about thi —Subscribe to RSS Feed... Read our Blog... Visit FB Page... Comments left Ennis said: | thought the south facing windows were supposed to be the largest? (ON Thu, 12 Aug 10, 8:52am probably from United States Reply to this comment Eco Guy said: In the Northern hemisphere, yes; but in the Southern hemisphere its the North facing windows (ON Sun, 17 Apr 11, 11:17am probably from Australia Reply to this comment Amanda si | am building a house on a block where my views are to the East and the access/front of house will be facing East. How can | make the most of the Solar passive effect as possible? I thought about building an L shaped house with large glass doors at the rear facing North. Would this get enough light in? ON Fri, 9 Dec 11, 1:51am probably from Australia Reply to this comment Eco Guy said: Hi Amanda, Do you have any access to the North at all, e.g. good Northern access to the Sun, You can be up to about 20% off true and still get good benefitAlso remember that regardless of orientation your roof space will still get warm - there are systems available that can capture roof space heat and inject them into the living area below - look up Ventis. (ON Fri, 9 Dec 11, 10:07pm probably from Australia Reply to this comment Jordan said: This might be the dumbest post I've ever seen on the internet. You assume the goal of the home builder is to gain heat (ie during the winter) yet for the southern third (to a half) of the people reading they want to MINIMIZE heat gain. -- Your simply saying houses should be East-West is as moronic as saying no matter what ails you an antibiotic is the right prescription. [What if | have a broken arm? Really, if you are going to put so litle thought into your writing, don't even bother cluttering the net with babble. Just sayin’ ON Wed, 21 Deo 11, 3:13pm probably from United States Reply to this comment Eco Guy said: Hi Jordan, I'm assuming, which | thought was reasonable at the time writing the article, that if you have no need to capture solar heat, you wouldn't enact what | have written. Also there is another article on here called "Keeping your home Cool in Summer or Warm in Winter for free!” which covers cooling techniques if your property has too much heat to deal with (ON Thu, 22 Dec 11, 7:00am probably from Australia Reply to this comment Rubi said: What is the disadvantage to give the glass windows in south facing ON Sat, 7 Jan 12, 5:41pm probably from India Reply to this comment Arvind said:Hi, | am from India, which is the best direction for a Poultry and Dairy farm, | live near Mumbai (formaly known as Bombay) Thanks. Arvind ON Mon, 16 Jan 12, 10:10pm probably from India Reply to this comment Anu said: iam designing a boys hostel in haryana karnal district what should be the orientation of my buildimg ‘ON Tue, 31 Jan 12, 10:06pm probably from Australia Reply to this comment Rahul said: what is your comments about south facing house as per buildig planning and orientation of building as per the sun digram. ON Tue, 6 Mar 12, 11:18pm probably from India Reply to this comment Eco Guy said: Basically you need to orientation the building so that the rooms you use the most are those that face the Sun the most, Northern hemisphere this will be the South side, Southern hemisphere the North side. ON Sun, 11 Mar 12, 9:47pm probably from United States Reply to this comment Bron said: The sun path diagram is not correct. In the southern hemisphere in Winter the sun rises to the north of East, and sets to the north of West. In Summer it rises a fair way south of East, and sets to the south of West. ON Tue, 15 Jan 13, 2:46pm probably from Australia Reply to this comment Eco Guy said: Hi Bron, | assumed people will adjust their comprehension of the diagram if they are in the Southem hemisphere. ON Tue, 15 Jan 13, 4:39pm probably from Australia Reply to this commentSaif said: What | understood is that this article is focused on heating based design for freezing countries (Am | right?) For Indian climate, temperature in winter on average is 20°C and in summer it is around 40°C with high humidity, We require cooling on most of the months and no cooling is, required (with exception of few places). So can you please give link to any design articles for such scenario? ON Sun, 18 May 14, 9:04pm probably from Qatar Reply to this comment Saif sai Please read as "no heating is required instead of no cooling is required” ON Thu, 22 May 14, 3:39am probably from Qatar Reply to this comment + Got a question or comment about this? Find what you were looking for?... 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