Achieving Sustainable Living

Considering the environment and sustainability in your house design is something that will not only make your home feel great, but will also reduce your day to day running costs. A comprehensive way of achieving this is through correct orientation and by implementing a design that is solar passive. Ensuring the design has inclusions that reduce it’s energy consumption.

Orientation

The layout and positioning of internal spaces should be well-thought-out and arranged in a way where the living areas can be enjoyed throughout all seasons of the year.

It is preferred that all living rooms are orientated as much as possible to the northern aspect. Spaces such as the garage positioned to the west, to shelter the home from the western sun. Whilst the bedrooms take up the southern aspect, as these spaces are often only utilised in the evening and wouldn’t benefit from being positioned to the northern aspect. Other elements such as windows to the west and south should also be reduced as much as possible, as they can be large sources of unwanted heat gain.

 Lighting

Once you have the correct orientation the next is controlling when the light enters the home.

Eaves of the correct depth and height above any north facing windows, when correctly designed will allow the winter sun to enter into the interior of the home in winter. Conversely stopping the sun ray’s entering the home in summer.

Other ways of controlling the sun include having a deciduous tree that provides cover in summer and allows the light to enter in winter when the leaves fall off the tree. Manually operated screens or louvres can also control the sunlight penetration as well as other features like pergolas with deciduous vines such as grapes.

 Energy Consumption

Creating a home that can capture and push natures cooling prevailing breezes throughout the internal spaces of a home is an ideal way of reducing your need for mechanical cooling. The home design needs to utilise the natural cooling cycles in order to reduce the need for air-conditioning, thus reducing expensive energy consumption.

Other items to consider may also be the level of insulation. A well-insulated home can help you maintain a regular internal temperature when trying to heat or cool your home.

Finally the inclusion of solar hot water system can reduce your energy consumption dramatically as you use the sun to heat your homes hot water. Couple this together with a PV solar system and you can make a resounding impact on reducing your homes energy usage.

An important factor to note is that a home can be designed to include all these fabulous things and still look like a charming home as long as you consider and include these things in the initial stages the benefits can be immense.

You may also like

bright open plan living room with raked ceilings, big windows and coloured accessories

Tips to colour your home

Check out our top 5 tips to colouring your home below! 1. Dark grey and charcoal can have a dramatic effect for a feature wall. This trend has been around for a few years and still going strong. Alternatively use a light grey for a more relaxing calmer feel. Ensure to enhance ...

bright open plan kitchen living area

10 Home Design Tips for a Rural View

Take full advantage of your view If you’ve invested in a block with a glorious view, it makes sense to look for a house design that allows you to enjoy that view as much as possible, indoors and out. But what should you look for when it comes to ...

Sunset over a country house with swimming pool

5 tips to create a relaxing indoor-outdoor entertaining area

Create a large entertaining area that your guests will love Having a well-designed outdoor area adjacent to your living area is a great way to get more space when needed and to add value to your home. The indoor-outdoor concept is not a new idea, but when you combine it ...