New house build - orientation for sun

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#2605947 18-Nov-2020 12:42

Consider light colored sunshade blinds @Paul1977. Roman Blinds Direct do them, we ordered from them recently. Sounds like you need good air conditioning as well.

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Paul1977

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#2605950 18-Nov-2020 12:51

timmmay:

Consider light colored sunshade blinds @Paul1977. Roman Blinds Direct do them, we ordered from them recently. Sounds like you need good air conditioning as well.

I think it'll be a lot better (or more controllable any way) once the curtains are up. Double tracks with thicker lining on the back track and shears on the front. At the moment the sun just streams in completely unimpeded.

We have ducted heat pump, but not not the cheapest thing to run on cooling when it's trying to battle the solar gain.

sen8or

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#2605951 18-Nov-2020 12:51

In regards to your original question re orientation, for the section the angle seems about as good as you're likely to get. House will block some of the NE winds, which in Lincoln really do suck balls when trying to be outside.

You have to pick your poison with house positioning. Good positioning for winter sun can equal too hot in summer, but protecting from summer sun can equal too cold in winter and likewise with outdoor living / entertaining areas. Shelter from the prevailing wind but don't sacrifice light / sun.

Whatever the price you are quoted from the building company, allow at least 10% leeway for things that will come up during the build and don't forget landscaping, damn that stuff costs $$$

webwat

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#2606551 18-Nov-2020 23:24

We found venetian blinds ideal except for the ranchslider. Would have liked to have a section of north facing roof area in case we wanted solar panels in future.

Time to find a new industry!

Hammerer

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#2606597 19-Nov-2020 08:21

sen8or:

You have to pick your poison with house positioning. Good positioning for winter sun can equal too hot in summer, but protecting from summer sun can equal too cold in winter and likewise with outdoor living / entertaining areas. Shelter from the prevailing wind but don't sacrifice light / sun.

I agree that positioning a house in Auckland is more complex than, e.g. in Wellington where the worst weather and the least sunlight almost always coincide ie. from the south. But you don't always have to take some poison.

Wind is always the most difficult to completely ameliorate because it can come from any direction. But sunlight is entirely predictable so it is possible to get the most of direct winter sun while protecting from direct sunlight in summer. Simply widen your eaves to prevent direct sunlight hitting the sides, and particularly the windows, of the house. Provided they don't extend too far out then you should still receive most winter sun directly on the external walls and windows.

The calculations are not difficult http://www.level.org.nz/passive-design/shading/external-shading/

There are also ample and easily understood resources about Auckland weather such as this NIWA report:

https://niwa.co.nz/static/Auckland%20ClimateWEB.pdf

TYPICAL WEATHER SITUATIONS IN AUCKLAND

Strong easterlies with rain
Auckland’s heaviest rainfalls occur when there is a depression to the north or northwest with a strong north to northeast wind flow over the city, and a front embedded in the flow. ... The usual pattern of anticyclones to the north of the country and depressions to the far south is reversed on this occasion.
...
Fine weather
Auckland’s sunniest days occur during anticyclonic conditions in a light southeasterly flow ...

Kim587

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#2606823 19-Nov-2020 11:33

I have a place in Lincoln too, very similar shape and almost identical orientation although your plan looks a bit bigger. You say afternoon sun is most important to you - I think you will get plenty even if you keep the green wall; it won't be long past midday that the sun starts coming round into those west-side windows and from there basically your whole living area will be getting the afternoon and evening sun. Personally I'd leave that wall in there because I think you'll get enough sun with or without it.

With all that afternoon sun it will get hot in the living area and bedrooms. You definitely want to think about how to keep those rooms cool - mine easily get up to nearly 30 degrees from the sun and then the insulation means you'll be waiting half the night for them to cool down by themselves. The heatpump in the lounge won't be enough on its own for this. It doesn't necessarily need to be active cooling - a passive solution like wider eves and blackout curtains might be enough - but you do need to think about it. In some ways its more tricky than heating - in a properly insulated home, one heat pump and a small panel heater in your bedroom is probably plenty to keep it warm.

It looks like an unfortunate place to have the heatpump outdoor unit beside a bedroom - would there be room beside the garage? Admittedly I did that and now can't fit my wheelie bins past it, but I'd still prefer that to having them outside a bedroom - up to you what your needs are.

One thing I'd absolutely recommend is get a pad of graph paper, draw your floor plan to scale, and if you have a rough idea of the furniture you want make some to-scale cut outs of the furniture. Then you can play around with how you think you will want to lay everything out in real life. For example, if there's a lounge suite you are dreaming of will it fit in the room and still give you plenty of space to walk to the door? Does your tv cabinet fit between the windows, is the ideal place you'd want to put a bookshelf the same place you've got a door or window etc...

A suggestion out of left field; could you make the garage slightly bigger and have the laundry in there, and then make the laundry on the plan a walk in storage room? Storage is nearly always not enough in new houses. I appreciate that might not be your preferred use for a space that size though.

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#2606831 19-Nov-2020 11:37

Design the eaves so that during the middle of the day you have shade in summer, direct sunlight in winter.

A modern house heats up fast in direct sunlight.

Mike

timmmay

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#2606915 19-Nov-2020 13:36

When the sun starts going down in summer you get sun shining directly into that part of the house for a couple of hours. Eaves help earlier in the day, but not late in the day. To reduce that heating you need trees, a sun shade sail, louvers, something to block it before it gets in. Mirrored glass would help but cuts down winter light. White sunshade blinds would help a lot as they'd reflect a good fraction the light away.

We find a 7kw air conditioner in the room that gets all the sun sufficient for cooling. We have another at the other end of the house as well, a bit bigger. Old house though, needs more heating / cooling than newer houses.

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#2606922 19-Nov-2020 13:49

timmmay:

When the sun starts going down in summer you get sun shining directly into that part of the house for a couple of hours. Eaves help earlier in the day, but not late in the day. To reduce that heating you need trees, a sun shade sail, louvers, something to block it before it gets in. Mirrored glass would help but cuts down winter light. White sunshade blinds would help a lot as they'd reflect a good fraction the light away.

We find a 7kw air conditioner in the room that gets all the sun sufficient for cooling. We have another at the other end of the house as well, a bit bigger. Old house though, needs more heating / cooling than newer houses.

Our extended eaves work well. We're in Blenheim, which is one of the top few towns for sunshine hours and often has hot NW winds in summer as well.

Our short eaves in Nelson were a disaster with afetrnoon sun. It go so hot the joins between GIB sheets cracked. We had to spend a lot of money on insect screens to create crossflow.

I agree that trees are good - light in during winter, shade in summer.

Mike

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#2606977 19-Nov-2020 14:09

We have huge eaves, about a meter wide. They work great during the day, it's just when the sun starts going low that you need something to block the sun coming in.

Paul1977

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#2607358 20-Nov-2020 10:02

Sorry to hijack the thread, but do blackout curtains do much more than dim-out ones for stopping solar heat gain?

I'm a huge fan of blackout for controlling light, but the missus prefers dim-out so she can pull them during the day and it's not pitch black.

We compromised with blackout in the master bedroom and media room, and dim-out in the living/dining. But as far as heat goes, if we find the living/dining still gets too hot are we likely to notice much difference by changing to blackout?

timmmay

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#2607409 20-Nov-2020 10:10

Paul1977:

Sorry to hijack the thread, but do blackout curtains do much more than dim-out ones for stopping solar heat gain?

I'm a huge fan of blackout for controlling light, but the missus prefers dim-out so she can pull them during the day and it's not pitch black.

We compromised with blackout in the master bedroom and media room, and dim-out in the living/dining. But as far as heat goes, if we find the living/dining still gets too hot are we likely to notice much difference by changing to blackout?

If they're lined with white fabric they should reflect some heat / light back out, but some will get absorbed into the room, less than without them though. We got blinds that are blackout and I specified black lining as I was more concerned with reflections out the side of the blinds than reflecting heat out.

I think either way you'll still need to remove heat absorbed by the curtains and released into the room. A window cracked open might work ok, but good ventilation or air conditioning is probably required in summer.

We find heating easy - two high wall heat pumps get the house warm, oil heaters top it up in bedrooms. Cooling in summer is more problematic, I end up using a series of fans to push cool air around which doesn't work well at all. I'll get a ducted system one day.

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#2607410 20-Nov-2020 10:12

Paul1977:... We compromised with blackout in the master bedroom and media room...

We had white wooden shutters installed for the Master Bedroom at our previous home and are having shutters installed again at our new home. While these are not as effective as black-out blinds, there do provide clean and easy to clean way to block the light.

Not the cheapest solution but far quieter than vertical blinds that rattle in any breeze.

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#2607427 20-Nov-2020 10:53

timmmay:

I think either way you'll still need to remove heat absorbed by the curtains and released into the room. A window cracked open might work ok, but good ventilation or air conditioning is probably required in summer.

Hopefully the dim-outs along with the ducted heatpump and HRV moving the air around will be enough. I'm fine using aircon on an unusually hot day, but would like to avoid using it every day in summer - those bills add up!

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#2607443 20-Nov-2020 10:59

rogercruse:

We had white wooden shutters installed for the Master Bedroom at our previous home and are having shutters installed again at our new home. While these are not as effective as black-out blinds, there do provide clean and easy to clean way to block the light.

Not the cheapest solution but far quieter than vertical blinds that rattle in any breeze.

For two small windows on either side of the bed we went for Blocco Blinds similar to the below. Blackout with side channels. The work really well for blocking the light. Also have them for two narrow full height windows on either side of the TV in the living room. Just need to wait for the rest of the curtains now, and hope they get the summer heat under control!

EDIT: We have low profile window latches, so our ones fit much further back into the window reveal than the above example, which IMO makes them look better (especially when open).

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