Think About Orientation and Flow
When it comes to making your home comfortable, one of the most important things to get right is to orientate the building to make the most of sun when you want warmth, and shade when you don’t.
Once you have the orientation sorted your next step is to think about the flow.
“Zoning is my favourite design hack!”
Did you know?
That the average Australian home uses 40% of its energy for heating and cooling.
Orientation
When it comes to making your home comfortable, one of the most important things to get right is to orientate the building to make the most of sun when you want warmth, and shade when you don’t.
In cool and temperate climates, it makes sense to position living areas on the northern side of the home with windows also facing north. This way, the rooms will be naturally heated by low angle winter sun. To keep a house cool in summer, the sides of the building that are exposed to the sun should have smaller windows to reduce the amount of direct sunlight from entering and be protected by shading devices.
Even a little bit of sun will go a long way to either naturally warming or overheating your home. Think about how quickly a car heats up when it’s outside with the windows and doors closed. In winter it’s lovely and warm to get into and in summer it’s stinking hot. By orienting your home to capture that warmth in winter and excluding it summer, it will be nicer to be in and cost a lot less to heat and cool.
Zoning
By arranging the internal rooms in your house to make the most of areas that are naturally warm in winter and cool in summer, your home will be more comfortable to live.
In cool and temperate regions, living areas such as the kitchen, living and dining rooms should be located on the northern side of the house with north facing windows. In double storey homes, consider putting the living areas upstairs so that these spaces can receive unobstructed northern light. In hot climates, living areas should be located where they are well protected from the sun to keep them cool.
Zoning becomes even more effective when different areas within the home can be sealed off from one another by closing doors so that the temperature in the warm (or cool) spaces can be more effectively maintained. Finally, air conditioning to the various zones should be able to be controlled separately, as it means you only have to heat or cool the areas that you are using.
Cross Ventilation
Designing for good cross ventilation will make your home more comfortable in summer by capturing cooling breezes. It will also make it healthier to live in.
Cross ventilation works by allowing breezes to flow through your home to flush out accumulated heat and provide the cooling feeling of air movement over your body.
Cross ventilation is improved by having larger window (or door) openings on the opposite side to the prevailing winds, as this helps ‘pull’ air through the house.
Window type also has an impact with sliding windows being more effective than awning types as they typically have a larger opening for air to move through. Also consider the internal layout of rooms and alignment of doors and corridors to create pathways for breeze to flow through.
Good cross ventilation will also improve the air quality inside your home by flushing out carbon dioxide and other toxic gases and replacing it with fresh air.
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