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If you haven’t thought about it before, there are quite a few factors that can go into whether the direction your house is facing is a good thing or a bad thing. In a south facing house, assuming your south is not blocked by buildings or other structures, you will comparatively receive natural light for a longer duration ( because of the sun’s path of movement). So if you get to pick, always pick south facing!At the end of the day each direction your home might face has different benefits and disadvantages. The direction a home faces is also important in some cultural traditions.

East and west facing ends of this design will be shorter than the north/south dimension. According to Marvin it is best to look at your location and ensure the features of the house capture the natural benefits from all directions. Homes with large front windows facing too far southwest, for example, may overheat in summer, while homes directed too far southeast will miss some of the benefits of available solar heating through windows during winter.Walls facing south should have a total window area at least 50 percent more than the combined window area of walls facing east and west. For the best results, solar panels should be oriented towards the south. Both of these positions receive a large amount of natural and direct light which might be a little warm in the summer depending where you live, but it will help with heating costs in the winter! Ancient Greek and Roman houses were oriented and constructed with seasonal solar exposure in mind. Face the long, front side of the home within 20 degrees either side of true south. Nearby bodies of water can provide cooling breezes in summer if they are located on the hotter, south-facing side of the home.Gus Stephens has written about aviation, automotive and home technology for 15 years. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west and midday sunlight is at a low angle in winter and a high angle in summer. But other than that you can’t uproot your home and spin it. This usually means that the ends of the roof ridge line on a rectangular house will point to the east and west. Depending on what time of day it is, you might get too much glare from the sun. His articles have appeared in major print outlets such as "Popular Mechanics" and "Invention & Technology." By The Best Direction For House To Face For Energy EfficiencyWhy Home Orientation is Important For Homes and Tips to Follow: The most frequently used rooms should front the longer, south-facing side. The farther the orientation deviates from 20 degrees of true south, however, the more heating and cooling shortfalls may occur. There is often quite a bit speculation on what is the best direction for your house to face. Copyright text 2020 by Barter Design Some of the factors that can help influence your decision include if the sun will land on your home which can affect how much heating or cooling you will need to use, along with this a different direction will also affect how much wind your property receives. “In most cities, the ideal is to have your yard facing west as this is where most of your outdoor time at home is spent and that should be in the afternoon sun,” he says Of course before we get into this, not every situation is as black and white as we would like it to be. Deciduous trees can offer heat-reducing shading from high-angle summer sun, yet allow solar heat exposure when they lose their leaves in winter.

While the angle of your solar panels is important, a more important factor in your energy production is going to be the direction your panels face. You could plant some evergreens on the North side of your home to help block the sun in the summer and block the wind in the winter. If you are interested in adding more natural light to your home then consider When you look at homes, and you start to look at different neighborhoods, you don’t necessarily think about that each house might have been placed in a certain direction and angle for a particular reason, or they might not have. In addition to offering greater solar warmth in winter, these rooms will be more consistently lit by sunlight, which can reduce lighting costs.Face the long, front side of the home within 20 degrees either side of true south. Proper orientation of a new home allows the homeowner to take advantage of a powerful source of lower utility costs: passive solar energy. The sun moves, but houses stay put Schoolchildren can tell you that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west – and if this were strictly true, building orientation would be fairly simple.