The Cook wrote:
On Mon, 21 Mar 2011 10:06:30 +1100, "David Hare-Scott"
wrote:

gardenlen wrote:
yes it all starts with knowing about and being able to identify the
aspects of the land, ie.,. northern hemi' ideal would be a southern
aspect around to eastern. add some knowledge of average weather
conditions eg.,. rainfall an you can have a producing garden in an
area that say gets more rain than other near by places.

then the right sort of house needs to be built for the climate area
so it is truely efficient to run. lots of stumbling block in there
as many have no idea to even look for aspect let alone what it is,
and outside the indoctrinated mcmansion designs very many won't
look at altenatives.

so when buying property use the head and not the heart, the heart
can come later, develop a criteria. the orientation of the house on
the property counts.


Quite right Len. So many houses, even newly erected, contain basic
errors that could easily be avoided. For example, they are oriented
towards the street or the view not the sun, or in hot climates they
have unshaded sunward windows. I know of people who are saving
money by not including insulation but they worry whether the portico
should have Ionic or Corinthian columns, of course they plan for
aircon to deal with their design errors. Such carelessness and
ignorance will come back and bite them and their heirs and
successors.

Something else to consider is using the garden to improve the house.
It is common for people to assume that this means only the aspect
and decorating concepts such as linking the outdoors into the house.
The plants that you grow can do all that as well as improving the
thermal performance of the house. For example you can shade a
sun-facing window in summer but allow in the sun in winter by having
a trellis with a deciduous vine over it.

David

I admit that we got the best orientation when we bought this house.
But it was luck. The house faces the west and we have two very large
Oak trees in the front yard. The deck is on the back and gets the
morning sun. By late afternoon the deck is completely shaded and
comfortable unless the day is extremely hot. We got one of the
sunshade awnings and roll it out early in the day to keep the heat out
of the kitchen and family room.


You may have got the best aspect for your deck but not for the overall
thermal performance of the house. In temperate zones the best aspect is
that the long sides of the house face north and south. In your climate you
would be missing out on getting winter sun into the house which will add to
your heating bills.


If I were looking for a building lot I would be checking out the
orientation and prevailing winds. Then see if I could build the kind
of house and orientation I wanted there. If I were planning to garden
I would also think about orientation & winds.

Certainly.

David