A question about house orientation

[dlang1]

I am looking to buy a house but the problem is the kitchen/back of the house faces North and the living room directly behind it is South of course. The east side is blocked by a neighboring structure/condo. I am afraid I will not see a sunny morning kitchen and are deciding not to buy. I love and need that morning sun...what do you think?

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by dlang1

I am looking to buy a house but the problem is the kitchen/back of the house faces North and the living room directly behind it is South of course. The east side is blocked by a neighboring structure/condo. I am afraid I will not see a sunny morning kitchen and are deciding not to buy. I love and need that morning sun...what do you think?

I like a sunny morning kitchen too, but live without one in the latest house. If it matters enough to write to a bunch of strangers about it, it seems important to you. Keep looking.

[azdr0710]

this thread was resurrected, but I think it's an important one......

didn't read all the posts, but here are my thoughts:

south-facing is very nice because of all-day sun (light and bright rooms), but an appropriate overhang and/or leafy trees (that lose their leaves in winter) are mandatory to avoid hot summer heating.....in the winter, our south-facing rooms are very nice and warm w/o the heater on, but the windows do need to be sheltered from the summer sun....architects/designers have the formula for how much overhang is needed

you pretty much do not want large west-facing windows at all unless you live in the house only in the winter!

east-facing is OK, but those rooms will be dark-ish after 11am or so....morning summer sun will heat up even east-facing rooms very fast by 8am......

north-facing rooms, of course, will be protected from the sun at all times except very early and very late on summer days.....rooms will be dark-ish most of the time.....

keep in mind that the sun rises well north of east and sets well north of west in the summer, while it rises and stays entirely south of east and west in the winter......

[richard222]

Our house has a NE by SW exposure with the back of the house facing east by north east and I love waking up to the rising sun through my bedroom windows. From noon on that side of the house is shaded and the front of the house, including the garage gets very hot. Fortunatly there are no windows on the front of the house, but that garage is smoking hot! No matter, I do really like this set up with the morning sun. Pool in the backyard gets the afternoon shade from the house.

[Beware_of_Dog]

It is funny how everyone is different. I like to sleep late and hate for the morning sun to light up my room at 5am in the summer. Thus I always choose a bedroom that is on the west side of the house.

What is ideal to me is a house whose backyard and patio faces south so as to be able to sun bath in the winter and sit out on the back patio and warm up in the morning.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by jaronson

Hi everyone,

Why is it that in the Phoenix area it's considered a selling point if a house has "north/south" exposure? Where I live in the northeast, it's considered great if a house has "southern" exposure (meaning the back of the house faces south), because otherwise it's always dark and gloomy inside. Is it the exact opposite in Phoenix? Do you want the north side for your back yard? I know this question has been answered in other posts, but I honestly didn't get a clear understanding from the responses. On my recent trip to Chandler, I really liked one house that had its backyard to the east. Is that a bad orientation for a house in the southwest?

If someone would take pity on me and give me an explanation of this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Honestly, I have lived in Phoenix and I really do not think that having a "north/south" exposure is going to make a lick of difference with keeping the house cooler when it's 112 degrees outside.

If you study ANY literature on solar heating or cooling they will ALWAYS state that the South facing side is always the hottest and the north facing side is always the coldest. But again, when it is 112 degrees outside, it's not going to make that much difference one way or the other. The *only* think I can think of that would make any sense would be if you wanted to put solar panels on your roof, you would want the pitch to be favorable.

Without knowing for certain, I would say that having a "south/north" orientation is just some trendy thing that somebody started and nobody really understands it either other than that is just "the thing" when looking for a house there.

20yrsinbranson

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

Honestly, I have lived in Phoenix and I really do not think that having a "north/south" exposure is going to make a lick of difference with keeping the house cooler when it's 112 degrees outside.

If you study ANY literature on solar heating or cooling they will ALWAYS state that the South facing side is always the hottest and the north facing side is always the coldest. But again, when it is 112 degrees outside, it's not going to make that much difference one way or the other. The *only* think I can think of that would make any sense would be if you wanted to put solar panels on your roof, you would want the pitch to be favorable.

Without knowing for certain, I would say that having a "south/north" orientation is just some trendy thing that somebody started and nobody really understands it either other than that is just "the thing" when looking for a house there.

20yrsinbranson

The west side is the hottest and it DOES make a difference. The NS exposure comes from the day when houses were ranch style. It is most desirable to have the smaller area walls with fewer windows on the west. The worst thing one can have is row of big windows, patio doors etc on the west side. As for south side, the info given in several posts is incorrect. There is NO sun on the south windows in summer (I know I have an almost perfect N/S place) The sun is too high in the sky. The sun does beat down on the south side in fall, winter, and spring though. Winter glare can be really annoying out in the back yard. My ideal house has the back yard on the east side and not a lot of windows in the front (west) side.

[ron17571]

I bought foam insulation panels and cut them to fit my rentals giant windows,such a difference,it almost wasnt livable without the panels.Sure makes a diffrence in the summer with your electric bill.

[Captain Bill]

Our house back is to the east and the front is to the west. That's perfect for us. The back of the house is on the Val Vista Lakes waterfront

Our great room, master bedroom and my office are on the east side.

So in the afternoon we can open up the great room drapes and my office blinds, and go on the patio if we wish, to enjoy the view.

The front has a garage that protects the single story house from the heat. On the other side of the front, there is a large overhang over the walkway that keeps afternoon sun from hitting our front door.

Another bedroom is on the front and it's protected by a large Fica tree, plus the shades are closed there during the afternoon.

The garage, however, is a sauna during the afternoon. I'll take care of that some day with an R 19 rated door. I think that's the highest rated garage door right now.

While most people prefer the house front facing south, I prefer the house front facing west (even if we weren't on the lake).