Importance of aspect

Theboinkmaster

What are people's thoughts for houses in scd with small enough gardens. How important is this and can you explain why South is best? Sun rises in East and sets in west so why are North and South not exactly the same?

I know South west is most desirable as in theory you spend more time in the back of the house in the evenings.

Why is South better than west, if it is? As you want sun setting against back of house?

Gone West

We're in the northern hemisphere.
In the southern hemisphere north is best.

Theboinkmaster

Fuzzy wrote: »

We're in the northern hemisphere.
In the southern hemisphere north is best.

Yes I know that, but why?

Grolschevik

Because the nearest part of the earth to the sun is the equator. And that's to our south. So the sun always shines from a southward direction. Try it with an orange and a lightbulb...

Falcon L

In the winter, the sun stays low in the southern sky.

afkasurfjunkie

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

What are people's thoughts for houses in scd with small enough gardens. How important is this and can you explain why South is best? Sun rises in East and sets in west so why are North and South not exactly the same?

I know South west is most desirable as in theory you spend more time in the back of the house in the evenings.

Why is South better than west, if it is? As you want sun setting against back of house?

Our garden is North facing. It means it gets very little sun during the day except during the summer. The sun arcs it's way across the sky during the day and the front of our house gets plenty of sun but the building casts a shadow on our garden. Our kitchen is quite cool and dark as a result. I can live with it because our living room gets plenty if sun during the day but it wud be nice to have a sunny back garden for lounging around on sunny days.

HeidiHeidi

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

What are people's thoughts for houses in scd with small enough gardens. How important is this and can you explain why South is best? Sun rises in East and sets in west so why are North and South not exactly the same?

I know South west is most desirable as in theory you spend more time in the back of the house in the evenings.

Why is South better than west, if it is? As you want sun setting against back of house?

Because in the course of the day, the sun goes via the south, not the north. Makes a VERY big difference.

Having lived in two houses, one with a north-facing back, and currently with a due-south-facing back, south-facing wins hands down but next time I'd definitely go for west. The south facing garden is such a sun-trap that it becomes unbearably hot on a sunny summer's day (nice complaint, though!) and fries anything I try to grow. And thanks to my neighbour's extension, the sun is gone by about 4pm. However, it's still lovely into the evening.

But you'll pay a big premium for a west-facing back garden.

seamus

If you've a sufficiently long back garden, aspect makes no odds, but as others point out the sun always arcs to the south in the Irish sky, even in Summer.

The end result is that your house casts a shadow across the back garden pretty much all of the time if the garden is north facing.

Many prefer west over south facing because a west facing garden catches arguably the best sun - in the evening, at dinnertime - while mostly protecting you from the insane heat of the morning and midday sun.

East facing gardens can be OK, if you have no neighbours to your south. It means you'll get good sun in your garden for most of the day, though you will lose that late evening sun, you know the one where you sit out with a few beers, not too hot, but not cold at all either.

2013Lara

Our garden is (unknowingly when we bought) South facing. Love it, its an absolute sun trap. Gets the sun from early until about 6pm in the summer time. Shines straight onto the patio area. We sat out for lunch into October of last year, wed never got so long out of the garden in previous rentals, all of which wed be chasing the sun up the garden every day. No more moving furniture I didn't realise how big a difference it made until I had it. As above though, it can get too hot. Plenty of sun cream for kids and a big parasol. If the sun is out, our garden has it.

The_Morrigan

My apartment is south facing and considering I have a single aspect apartment (all my windows are all the back) it's great. The sun lights up every room, the balcony is always in the sun too.

MouseTail

seamus wrote: »

If you've a sufficiently long back garden, aspect makes no odds, but as others point out the sun always arcs to the south in the Irish sky, even in Summer.

It makes a difference inside the house though. No amount of expensive light reflecting paint can make a North facing room anything less than gloomy. That's ok in a living room which is used in the evening mainly, with curtains drawn, but a kitchen/family room should not face north.

farrerg

what distance away from the house behind would you need to be to make sure they don't block the sunlight?
No benefit in south or west facing if it'll be blocked by the house behind you anyway

seamus

Depends on a lot of factors, including the height of the house behind (relative to yours).

Going by a property height of 8m, during the summer, the sun will be at around 60 degrees, give or take. This means that the shadow cast by your neighbour's property behind will be about 4.5m long. So their back garden and yours needs to be more than 4.5m in total in order for you to get some sun. Which is pretty damn likely, unless you and your rear neighbour are right on top of eachother.

In winter, the sun is at roughly 13 degree at midday, so you need to be more like 34 metres from your neighbour's house to see some sun.

farrerg

seamus wrote: »

Depends on a lot of factors, including the height of the house behind (relative to yours).

Going by a property height of 8m, during the summer, the sun will be at around 60 degrees, give or take. This means that the shadow cast by your neighbour's property behind will be about 4.5m long. So their back garden and yours needs to be more than 4.5m in total in order for you to get some sun. Which is pretty damn likely, unless you and your rear neighbour are right on top of eachother.

In winter, the sun is at roughly 13 degree at midday, so you need to be more like 34 metres from your neighbour's house to see some sun.

Ok thanks, so unless the gardens are really small, you should get some sun in the summer. Good to know

rightoldpickle

Summer sun is be thing but I'd be more concerned about winter sun. We are currently renting a house and the garden hasn't seen a glimmer of sun since September. The grass is like a marsh and the patio is all moss. The summer it was a sun trap, it was great but for the other wetter part of the year Id prefer a dry garden that the kids can use!!

Archaeoliz

Apparently I can't post urls as I'm a new user, but I found a great website which uses google maps and overlays a projection of the transit of the sun alongside a calendar so you can see exactly how much light your new living room / kitchen / bedroom might get at what time of day, and what time of year. Natural light is hugely important to me so it was really helpful.

Google for SunCalc

The_Morrigan

Archaeoliz wrote: »

Apparently I can't post urls as I'm a new user, but I found a great website which uses google maps and overlays a projection of the transit of the sun alongside a calendar so you can see exactly how much light your new living room / kitchen / bedroom might get at what time of day, and what time of year. Natural light is hugely important to me so it was really helpful.

Google for SunCalc

PM me the link and I'll post it on your behalf.

/Mod

Archaeoliz

Thanks The_Morrigan.. PM sent. Hope it's helpful

MayBea

Archaeoliz wrote: »

Apparently I can't post urls as I'm a new user, but I found a great website which uses google maps and overlays a projection of the transit of the sun alongside a calendar so you can see exactly how much light your new living room / kitchen / bedroom might get at what time of day, and what time of year. Natural light is hugely important to me so it was really helpful.

Google for SunCalc

I find it very good also and would recommend. It's suncalc.net

The_Morrigan

Link - http://suncalc.net/

crisco10

Archaeoliz wrote: »

Apparently I can't post urls as I'm a new user, but I found a great website which uses google maps and overlays a projection of the transit of the sun alongside a calendar so you can see exactly how much light your new living room / kitchen / bedroom might get at what time of day, and what time of year. Natural light is hugely important to me so it was really helpful.

Google for SunCalc

That is pretty cool!

D_D

crisco10 wrote: »

That is pretty cool!

Can I be really stupid and say I've no idea what I'm looking at. How do I use this?

farrerg

D_D wrote: »

Can I be really stupid and say I've no idea what I'm looking at. How do I use this?

Same here!

crisco10

Just drag the pin to any location on the map.

Yellow Line = Rising Sun
Red Line = Setting Sun
Orange Line = location of sun at time selected on drag bar.

The arc just traces the path of the sun through the day.

Then you can change the time of year by changing the date at the top of the page.

D_D

crisco10 wrote: »

Just drag the pin to any location on the map.

Yellow Line = Rising Sun
Red Line = Setting Sun
Orange Line = location of sun at time selected on drag bar.

The arc just traces the path of the sun through the day.

Then you can change the time of year by changing the date at the top of the page.

OK, I get it now. I understood the sun rise and sun set locations, but I didn't understand that the closer the curve is to the center, the higher the sun is in the sky.

Senecio

Great link, thank you. Will be useful on our house hunt.

Lantus

Here is a good simple sun path diagram for the main seasons

ideally you want your house running east to west with larger windows on the southern façade. That way you get 'free heat' year round. Trust me, this makes a huge difference to your heating bills and well being.

Houses with living areas to the north and southern gardens have lovely gardens but much colder living rooms that need more heating.

Houses running north-south get morning sun for a bit and then later on evening sun in the evening.

The most energy efficient buildings tend to be orientated east-west with primary glazing on the southern façade to maximise free heating.

We have a roughly southern aspect and the difference it makes is amazing. Even today at -2 Degrees we only needed 30mins heating in the morning to take the chill out and with the blinds open its free heat all day. In fact with the sun out it almost gets too warm despite freezing temperatures outside.

iguana

We have a bungalow on a largish plot so a very small proportion of my garden is in the shade of the house compared to what isn't. And even the shaded part of the patio has nothing shading it to the west so from mid-afternoon until sunset it gets sun. With that in mind I far prefer that the front of the house is south facing. The master bedroom, the playroom and the front porch all get nice and warm on sunny days. Even just a little winter sun means you could spend the day in them without any need for heating. I like having a sunny front garden too as it feels more social to sit in. As we go into spring and summer my son can play out there with things like his bike/scooter/skates that will work better on the drive than in the back garden and I can sit in the sunny porch and watch him. Luckily though, the house is L-shaped so part of the livingroom and the kitchen also have a western aspect. Weirdly though the people who designed the kitchen went for a big north facing window and a pretty small west facing one. Couple that with the fact that the people who last lived here erected a wooden canopy over the patio outside the kitchen and the kitchen gets a lot less light than it should. First job this year is going to be installing a much larger window on the west wall and replacing the canopy roof with something like polycarbonate.

Calibos

Lantus wrote: »

Here is a good simple sun path diagram for the main seasons

ideally you want your house running east to west with larger windows on the southern façade. That way you get 'free heat' year round. Trust me, this makes a huge difference to your heating bills and well being.

Houses with living areas to the north and southern gardens have lovely gardens but much colder living rooms that need more heating.

Houses running north-south get morning sun for a bit and then later on evening sun in the evening.

The most energy efficient buildings tend to be orientated east-west with primary glazing on the southern façade to maximise free heating.

We have a roughly southern aspect and the difference it makes is amazing. Even today at -2 Degrees we only needed 30mins heating in the morning to take the chill out and with the blinds open its free heat all day. In fact with the sun out it almost gets too warm despite freezing temperatures outside.

Just posted similar in another forum on boards that was talking about heating bills.

2500sqft partial 3 storey Victorian end of Terrace with the front facing just South of West. Luckily we are on the southern end of the terrace.

We've glass french doors from a kitchen and one bathroom window on the first floor facing east over a small back yard. View isn't the best as there is a large business premises behind but the upside is its large white painted zinc pitched roof bounces light at the back of the house all day from afternoon to evening when by rights the back of the house should get no light. All other rooms in the house including the attic converted end have large sash windows or velux. ie. 2 Velwx on the south side of roof in converted attic bedroom and 7 large sash Windows and another set of glass french doors on the southern side of the building. Finally ground and first floor large bays facing just south of west on the front plus the half glazed hall door and another bathroom window on the first floor.

Brightest house by far on the road and the heating bills in this house are the same as our old semi-D which was half the size