There are tons of prior discussion threads on this subject. Try searching...

If you recall any thread terms please share. The search function is terrible on here.

I end up finding irrelevant content. For example those in the south or PNW.

I thought a topic very specific to the midwest, plains or mid Atlantic might narrow is down.

I'm trying to comprehend the south exposure. Typically your main area would be facing the backyard? Why would you want trees all up close to your house in the backyard?

Are there examples of cost effective "large" overhangs? Right now my main living areas go from east to southeast to south. Not sure if I like it...especially the south.

I at least found this...

In the Midwest, the main living areas with large windows should be facing south if the site allows that. Have large overhangs on house so that the sun's angle in the winter will be low on horizon helping warm the house while in the hot summer the sun's angle will be much higher. Thus, in the summer the large overhangs protect the house from the heat of the sun. Also plant deciduous trees on south side and evergreens on north side. Protect west side also from strong winds and sun.
I like the kitchen on the east side of the house with maybe a small breakfast patio out there.
I used to design homes and studied architecture in the Midwest. One of our school projects was to design an energy saving home. Nowadays there are so many innovative ways to design a home that helps save energy.
Look at Frank Lloyd Wright's homes and the way he used large overhangs and natural materials to make the home design part of the landscape. He wasn't so good at roofs though. His tended to leak. Oh, well.

I'm in Alberta east of Edmonton. Winter here means temperatures down to -40 (sometimes colder). Summers are becoming hotter and more humid; we had many weeks of temperatures at 30C (86F) beginning in May, with the hottest in the low 90s F (33-34C).

We just finished building our new house, and the kitchen, dining room, living room face south; living room also has east and north exposures.

Why is this the case for cold zones (ie Midwest/Plains/East)?

The worst heat and glare for us comes from the west.

If you don't have shade from awnings or trees to the south/south east the sun still comes in quite a bit during the hotter parts of the day. I have to shut the blinds.

Our dining room is at the corner of the house in the corner of the property, and along that corner we have a shelterbelt of several rows of trees we started planting about 15 years ago in preparation for the new build (this has been a very long process for us lol), including tall larch (tamarack) trees which lose their needles/leaves in the fall. We don't have any shades on the windows in the dining room, which has nine large windows, three facing east, four facing south, and two facing west and the back (covered porch facing south). The house is two stories so we don't have an overhang immediately over the dining room windows, and the room was very comfortable in terms of light and temperature all summer.

The north doesn't get any sun so you need to keep the blinds open in the winter. I can't have it super dry because of my wood floors.

Our front yard is larger and deeper than our backyard, with the shelterbelt further away to the north. There's no direct sun from the north but lots of light, helped in the living room and our master bedroom (which has windows facing east and north) by a tower room with windows all around facing west, north, and east.

There are blistering winds from the west and northwest so I can see not wanting all your windows on this side.

Again, for us the shelterbelt helps with the wind, even in the winter when the deciduous trees lose their leaves.

The sun from the west is somewhat annoying during the summer but only for a few hours.

For us, the sun from the west is a major problem year-round, far more than somewhat annoying, in terms of heat and glare, rendering rooms with western exposure virtually unusable without shades and lined curtains.

As my husband and I get older (we're in our fifties now), we like more and more natural light, so we have lots of windows, and large ones, in our new house. It's taking me a while to get curtains and shades sorted out, but for most of the house they're mostly for form rather than function, except for where televisions are concerned : ) . We also planned for cross-ventilation, and have ceiling fans throughout the house and even on the back porch, which was lovely on days without a breeze. No air conditioning at the moment, though we may have to revisit that if the summers keep getting warmer.

As I mentioned above, the build has been a long process for us. It was something we thought of when we were first married 25 years ago and living in our older house on the farm. We planned the house for many years, I discovered GardenWeb in 2009, we hoped to start building in 2010 but got derailed when both of my parents died that year, started building in late 2013, and finally finished this year. Good luck!

Ignoring site considerations, I don't think there are any major disadvantages of north-south orientations for most temperate climates. Stretching the shape from east to west will minimize the amount of sunlight that tends to overheat a house and maximizes the opportunity for window area on the south and north. For Northern Hemisphere, south is best for free heat in the winter and north is best for indirect light.

I attached a crude drawing of a Good Shade Bad Shade illustration from our Passive Solar Design blog. Good shade on the south usually means a 12-24" deep overhang at each level. This strikes a good balance of letting south light in during the winter and keeping it out during the summer when the sun has a higher path through the sky. The overhang can be increased for more northern latitudes or southwest orientations.

New homes should be proven airtight with a blower door test. One shouldn't rely on vegetation but it might improve outdoor living considerations.

I'm not sure I would want a north/south orientation if the front were facing south. If I were building, it would be a two story colonial, and that south sun would be terrible all day. Large overhangs would not work, and awnings on the front are a bother, if attractive, and hideous if not. The back would be different - more options there.

My house (bought, not built) faces east and the back is west. I do have a south-facing sunporch which makes my plants that I bring in for the winter from my terrace, very, very happy. I enjoy it, too.

As with most things, "it depends"...

We are in the Midwest and on a lake. We have a southeast back and really like it. We love that we have shade on much of our boatdock and screen porch by early afternoon. It’s not blistering hot out there in the afternoon.

our last house had a true south back and we loved the light in our house. Lots of big windows and a walkout basement that did not feel like a basement. But our back porch was simply too hot too use in the summer.

I see many state that a north / south orientation is preferred.

Preferred for what? Energy Efficiency? Comfort? Views? Window Light?

Traditionally in northern climes and from an energy standpoint you don't want any windows (or very minimal) on the north side of the house, a lot of windows with good deciduous tree coverage on the south and moderate east & west. Or maybe a lot on the East. A lot of windows on the south is debatable though as more and more people are coming to the conclusion that the heat gain problems in the summer are not offset by the heat gain benefits in the winter.

But what if there are really awesome views to the north? Or there's an ugly McMansion to the east?

In our case we are doing an east<>west house in MN. Front is east, back/lake is west, conservatory on the south side and very few and small windows on the north. Gobs facing the lake on the west. We spent a bit of time balancing energy efficiency, comfort, views and window light.

I'm sorry to say, but you simply don't understand the principles of passive solar design. There are so many threads on this forum explaining and demonstrating them. These threads are easy to search for and find.

One of the very first decisions to be made in passive solar design is whether or not a prospective lot or land allows a house to be designed with the major public spaces--living, dining, kitchen, etc--facing south. Facing west is the absolute worst orientation.

If the property does not allow the house's public spaces to be designed facing west, it's simply the wrong property. Find different property. If passive solar design is important. And it is.

It's amazing how few people apparently understand this, and how many comments are posted with glowing comments about west-facing houses. Pun intended.

I think the OP is misunderstanding the point of orientation, in fact, I think a lot of people misunderstand exactly how it works, and just know it works. I am going to attempt (maybe poorly) to give an explanation short on technical stuff.

To start take a flashlight and point it straight down at your desk, notice the brightness. Now move the flashlight in an arc towards the desk. Notice that the light pattern gets bigger but it is not quite as bright.

This is summer and winter. When the sun is closest to directly overhead it is brighter and more intense, when the sun is less overhead it less bright and less intense.

Now in reality the sun doesn't spend any time directly overhead unless you are between the northern and southern tropics (which account for the tilt of the earth). The farther north (or south) of the equator you go the greater the angle. So now that we have that bit of understanding let's do something practical with it.

---

Let's build something on your vacant lot, so go get a couple of posts, and a piece of plywood that is about the size of a window (any window really). Now go out on a clear day near the solar equinox and plant the posts in the ground on the line between sunrise and sunset. Between those posts, very near the ground attach the piece of plywood that is about the same size as a window.

Now that you have built that contraption, let's use it to calculate the amount of sun coming in. Just go out at various times during the day and measure the size of the shadow on the ground. That is the amount of light that will be let into your home and thus the amount of heat. However, remember that all light and heat are not the same. Summer heat, like the flashlight directly overhead above, is more intense than winter heat.

You can then use that to calculate the percentage of light that enters your house, just add up all your various area measurements, divide by the number of measurements you took and then divide again by the area of the wood(window). You can then turn your contraption around to simulate any window orientation you want, and do it all year round. From there you just calculate the min-max. You want the maximum winter light that also provides the minimum summer light.

---

Fortunately, there really is no need to do this, as it has already been done many times. The results are pretty clear. In the northern hemisphere, putting the axis (long part) of your house along the path the sun takes through the sky, sunlight (thus heat) entering the house through southern windows creates the greatest winter light(heat), while creating the lowest summer light(heat). Because of the way houses are built and designed you might want to tilt your house up to 23.45° to get your preferred light orientation (and I think generally within 20° is considered sufficient for solar orientation).

In addition to using the basic principles of passive solar, because of our climate we also made sure to get good windows (double-glazed, low-E argon gas filled, which seems to be standard around here) and insulate well. We used batts of R20 (with R28 in the basement walls), R8 1.5" rigid insulation blanket over the entire house exterior, 2.5" rigid foam insulation under the concrete floor in the basement, R50 batts plus loose cellulose in the attic, and also insulated under the concrete in the garage floor.

It went down to -7C the night before last and we're nice and warm despite the furnace not running much, so we're doing well : ) .

Springtime Builders and bry911 know what they're talking about. You want the long way of the house east to west and the back of the house (with the yard, patio, French doors, etc) on the south because the seasonally changing path of the sun will blast your house with precious sunlight in the winter and barely/not even get past the eaves in the summer, leaving your interior totally shaded.

Frank Lloyd Wright wrote a paper or something on orienting a house, and my dad followed its rules exactly when positioning our country house. It works perfectly.

We lucked out with the house we bought in the city - lot orientation wasn't something we could be choosy about in urban neighborhoods. The front of our house, facing the street, is north, so we have a nice shaded porch all summer long, and the back faces south, so we have a sunny yard and a back upstairs room with a bay window that's flooded with sunlight in the winter. Don't have to worry about western exposure (or eastern) because the house is flanked closely to the east and west by other houses.

I'm sorry to say, but you simply don't understand the principles of passive solar design.

Who is 'you'?

If you recall any thread terms please share. The search function is terrible on here.

"passive solar" with and without "orientation", but make sure you're searching just the Building a Home forum. I get better results when I search via Google, using "gardenweb.com" and whatever other terms I need.

If I don't stay in a cold zone I'll end up in the PNW.

For passive solar, the principles are still the same : ) --

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/QandA/solarheat/where.htm

https://www.phnw.org/

https://www.pugetsoundsolar.com/passive-solar-power-on-display-today.html

Here are a couple of threads on the subject, the first one for the PNW,

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5416811/is-western-exposure-a-bad-idea-even-in-the-pacific-northwest#n=68

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/4049146/house-orientation#n=33

You can also search elsewhere online, not just at Gardenweb. One of the more helpful searches will likely be "passive solar" + "[your state]".

Here's the critical element for understanding and designing for effective passive solar design: Its the solar angles for any given latitude, and how they differ from summer to winter. Notice, in the summer, how much higher of an angle the sun is, with the apogee at noon daily. The steep angle may be calculated from easily available charts, and the appropriate dimension for roof overhangs and/or arbor or trellis devices can easily be calculated and made a part of the architectural design.

What does this do? It keeps direct sunlight out of the house interior during the warm summer months.

Now look at the much lower angle of the sun during the winter season. The apogee at noon is at a much lower angle to the horizon than in the summer time.

What does this mean? It simply means that roof overhands or arbor or trellis design elements which are calculated to keep the hot summer sun out of the house during summer month will allow the warming summer sun into the house during cold winter months.

That assumes the major public living spaces and glazed area are oriented to the south.

Here's a schematic of what happens with proper passive solar design, and proper orientation to the south:

The principles of passive solar design are very simple, assuming one begins with southern orientation (in the northern hemisphere).

If the property does not allow the house's public spaces to be designed facing west, it's simply the wrong property. Find different property. If passive solar design is important. And it is.

Um Virgil, I think you meant to say public spaces to be designed facing south?

All, appreciate the feedback. Its always good to get additional perspective beyond just the principles. Energy efficiency is important to me but its not the only factor. There aren't endless lots where the best ones allow for perfect positioning.

I did get hung up on "don't let the front of your house face west".

It makes more sense to me at least, as someone mentioned, to align the longest part of your home east to west or vice versa or even better your public spaces face south. My house faces west but all the public spaces face east to south. This lead to part of the confusion.

Until the small trees generate any type of appreciable shade on this southside its by far the hottest part of the house in summer.

How do you factor in the fact that some regions are more cloudy in winter than summer?

I did get hung up on "don't let the front of your house face west".

I don't recall ever reading or hearing that in any discussions here, unless it was a typo, or unless the house in question had its living spaces at the front of the house.

It makes more sense to me at least, as someone mentioned, to align the longest part of your home east to west or vice versa or even better your public spaces face south.

If by "public" you mean living spaces, such as kitchen, dining room, living room, then yes, this is what some of us keep yammering on about. It does indeed make a lot of sense : ) .

How do you factor in the fact that some regions are more cloudy in winter than summer?

Have you read any of the PNW links I posted above?

Energy efficiency is important to me but its not the only factor.

This is very true. For me, one of the largest factors is livability. We have neighbors who built their new house with the living spaces facing west, and then compounded the situation by building an enormous deck just outside the living spaces. The windows of the house need the window coverings closed most days, not just during summer. And the deck is virtually unusable in the summer. Very uncomfortable and unpleasant, and almost unlivable. Which explains why they spend a good chunk of the year in Phoenix in an air-conditoned condo venturing out only after 5 pm lol.

So I'm also curious about one of the OP's questions that I rarely see addressed. I get why southern exposure is good, northern is not so good, and western is bad. But what about eastern? It seems like it frequently gets dropped from these discussion. Perhaps because it's neither great nor terrible?

Hey Becky,

Regarding west facing house...see Virgil's comment.

It's amazing how few people apparently understand this, and how many comments are posted with glowing comments about west-facing houses.

I have a west facing house and apparently this would be bad but at the end of the day my general living spaces are east and south. This is electronic communication so its easy to make assumptions and I'm as guilty as anyone.

I'll check out the links for homework. I asked the question in case someone can quickly post it. I promise I'm not lazy but extraordinarily busy...not retired or stay at home....so its a peve when someone says "search". I don't expect someone to search for me, in that case I'd expect them to just not post. I'm a regular on the trees & conifer forum and the same questions get asked. I don't ask them to search I post what I know to help them out.

Kristen,

I love the morning so some east exposure is actually important to me and why I put my patio east facing. Flooded with the cooler morning sun and shaded in the hot late afternoon.

Hey Becky,

Regarding west facing house...see Virgil's comment.

"It's amazing how few people apparently understand this, and how many comments are posted with glowing comments about west-facing houses."

whaas, Virgil is referring to the living/public spaces facing west, not the front of the house facing west. As he writes earlier in that same post,

"One of the very first decisions to be made in passive solar design is whether or not a prospective lot or land allows a house to be designed with the major public spaces--living, dining, kitchen, etc--facing south. Facing west is the absolute worst orientation."

I promise I'm busy too, especially on a farm during harvest with very unhelpful freezing temperatures. That's why I posted links instead of cutting and posting what they have to say. I figured if you keep asking, you probably want to know lol.

So I know diagrams that show something like an overhang blocking all the sun's light are useful and help a lot of people. However, they aren't really correct and that might be confusing to some.

We can easily calculate the size the overhang needs to be for any set of windows to completely shade them at any time by measuring from the bottom of the eave to the bottom of the window and using the sun's zenith (or cos of zenith which is easier to find).

So in Indianapolis the Zenith is 20° south on the summer solstice. Assume a one story house with window bottoms 80" from the bottom of the eave and you will need an eave that is 29" deep to completely block the sun.

That all sounds fine and good but the sun is only at the summer solstice one time a year. At the Vernal and Autumnal equinox the zenith is almost 41° south in Indianapolis. So the same house will need eaves 68" to catch all the heating times. Realistically you would need eaves capable of full shade at the summer cross quarter days, which means eaves of 48". Large but doable, I guess.

But what happens when you put a second story on your house? No worries your eave only needs to get to 10' to provide shading for Indianapolis (and 12' for Seattle).

----------

There is truth to the diagram, because even partial shading windows lowers insolation, however the reality is without any overhang whatsoever southern facing windows will still have much lower insolation in the summer than either east or west facing windows. Don't give up south facing windows just because your overhangs aren't going to shade your windows completely.

ETA: I do hope everyone is capable of recognizing satire. I was pointing out the problem with overly simple graphics.

No one is suggesting a 10' overhang is acceptable, I am just pointing out the absurdity of a drawing that has the sun too low and the overhang too wide, used to demonstrate the key to orientation is an overhang.

We have 18 south facing 22x92 windows paired to make 9.. The single story roof overhang was designed to block all summer sun and allow the sun in the winter to penetrate fully. We have good insulation. On a cold sunny winter day without the furnace on the house warms up 4-6 degrees during the day.

A predominantly east orientation is probably better for colder climates than warmer ones. Most energy modeling, even up north will do better with low SHGC glass on the east. West overheats more because it's late in the day, with air temperatures high from hours of sunshine. You don't notice overheating as much with east windows coming off cooler night temps but it can result in higher loads for air conditioning, even in cold climates. A southeast orientation is much more desirable for passive solar design, and might even be preferable to south, in warmer climates.

Bry911 you need to stick to your field of expertise. Any architect can figure out how to handle a two story house with passive solar design. Here's a hint. This is only one approach, showing allowing the low winter sun to penetrate the interiors. The much higher summer sun cannot enter because of the overhangs and trellis designed to prevent penetration.

Any architect can figure out how to handle a two story house with passive solar design.

LOL... You don't really have to be an architect to figure out passive solar design, it really isn't that hard. A solid 8th grade education and a bit of effort is really all you need. But, I am sure that architects excel at it.

HOWEVER, when you say things like any architect can figure out how to handle a two story house, you are also inadvertently saying, anyone not using an architect can't achieve it.

My problem with the stupid passive house infographics, is that they show the best practice for dealing with insolation, but ignore the overall benefit of simply placing windows on the south. This is made worse by the assertion that insolation requires special training. It doesn't. It takes Middle school knowledge and a bit of time. These questions can be answered such that people get a better understanding of the entire thing.

If you can get your house designed by an architect with a passive solar objective, that is great. If you can achieve proper shading through overhangs that is great. However, even if you can't achieve either of those things, you should still orient your house along the axis with the bulk of windows facing south. Because that is still better than any other orientation.

@Virgil, please stop with the ad hominem attacks. If you find error in something I wrote, then please address that rather than my career. I assure you that thermodynamics is well within my wheelhouse of skills.

Gladly.

"...But what happens when you put a second story on your house? No worries your eave only needs to get to 10' to provide shading for Indianapolis (and 12' for Seattle)..."

I think middle school knowledge is sufficient to see the fallacy in your comment, and to realize there are other workable design strategies to make two-story houses workable passive solar designs.

Or was this simply a joke, and not immediately apparent upon reading?

Glad to see you went back and edited your original comments.

You both bring value so please bring anything that might be relevant. I'm even ok with hijacking as I been on here for over 10 years and seen it all!

I found that Virgil (and a few others on here! lol) is a peach but I've looked past it as the guy has mostly good to bring to the table.

Understanding why and how rooms get warmer with insolation is an important tool for a designer. However, communicating with and educating people can be an even more important tool.

People live with sunlight their entire life and often don't really give it a second thought. However, the converse of that is that people chase shade a lot and actually find it understandable. Simply by pointing out that every place shade reaches on an opaque object is a place the sun can be seen through it, if it were a window, can really help people visualize their choices. It is more than being about design, it is about furniture placement, glare, window treatments, what times a room will be used, etc.

Then once they understand that, you can discuss how to modify that with overhangs and design elements. I don't like the oversimplified info-graphics because people aren't stupid, they can understand the sun a lot better than an oversimplified picture allows. I especially don't like the, "trust me I am an expert," line. I find people generally reluctant to accept that, and I am always dubious of explanations of how without a why.

No problem as far as I'm concerned. Anyone who wants a 10-foot or 12-foot roof overhang should have one.