Buildings

Position of the House

Q: We were about to make an offer on a house, when my husband's weird brother Tim convinced him the house was facing the wrong way. Tim was into that solar stuff in the eighties. He talked about letting the sunshine in during the winter and keeping it out during the summer, and he almost sounded like he knew what he was talking about. But with good insulation and efficient heating and cooling systems, does it really matter where the house faces?

A: Whew! Take a deep breath, relax, and let's think about houses instead of how weird you think your brother-in-law is. The short answer is: yes, the orientation of a building can have a large influence on how comfortable you are in it and on how much it costs you to get it comfortable.

While this idea gained currency in the eighties as part of passive solar design strategies, the basic understanding goes back thousands of years. Ancient Chinese feng shui texts, ancient Indian vastu shastra texts, and the Native American builders of the Pueblos in the Southwest all recognized the importance of orienting the building to take into account the position of the sun and prevailing breezes and how they would affect the building.

Proper orientation is recognized by many architects, designers, and builders as a basic, necessary element of any good design. Recently, I even heard a mechanical engineer say, in public, that proper orientation is one of the most important features of any building design. But like many other aspects of good building practice, it is, unfortunately, ignored more often than not.

Current technology does enable us to overcome the weather to a degree unimagined by the ancients, but judging from the number of calls we get from people who are uncomfortable in their new homes, we still have a long way to go in terms of using that technology properly.

For the most part, though, we can "subdue" nature and create comfort for ourselves by using our machines, and the question becomes a financial one: Would I rather spend my money on fuel bills or on a vacation (or my kid's college fund, or a gift certificate for the Psychic Phone Network for my weird brother-in-law...)? The simple fact is, paying attention to some basic principles can reduce both the costs of equipment and the costs of running it for years to come.

Put most of the windows on the south side of the house. This will allow lots of sun to come in during the winter and help heat the house. Proper shading of those windows (an overhang of about two feet is right for most of North Carolina) will block out the higher, summer sun while still letting in the winter sun.

Minimize windows on the west side to keep the hot, low afternoon sun from coming into the house in the summer. If you do have windows on the west, shade them well--with trees, a porch, awnings, etc.

Similarly, reduce windows on the east and north as well. Following these simple guidelines will go a long way toward increasing your comfort and lowering your bills. If the contractor is doing a proper sizing calculation, this will also reduce the size of the air conditioning unit, saving some money up front.

"Minimizing" and "reducing" windows on certain sides of the house does not mean "eliminating" them. Having windows in every room, ideally on two sides of every room, helps with cross-ventilation, reduces glare, and makes the room feel more comfortable to most people. The key here is balance.

Obviously, the relationship of the house to the sun is not the only site consideration. Where is the street and how do you enter the house? Is there a particular view that you want to see from the house? What is the direction of the prevailing breezes? How does the house sit on the lot with respect to drainage? All of these are important considerations. And it's not at all weird--in fact, it makes good sense — to consider how your house relates to the sun, wind, and rain.