The orientation of your home can have a significant effect on the need for heating and cooling, making your home more energy efficient and therefore saving money on utility bills. This post covers the considerations concerning ideal orientation. Although these principles are most easily implemented at the design phase of a new build, this post is also worth reading if you are considering remodelling your home or purchasing a property.

Principles of Good Orientation

If a building is orientated to take advantage of the local climate then the need for additional artificial heating and cooling can be dramatically reduced. If selecting a plot on which to build, always consider how a new building will be orientated to take advantage of regional conditions. When renovating and remodelling, think about which spaces require heating and cooling most often and perhaps change the layout of the rooms accordingly.

Queensland and Good Home Orientation

The state of Queensland is both hot a humid for the majority of the year, so there are little, if no heating requirements year round. When building in the Whitsundays, orientation should maximise exposure to cooling breezes whilst attempting to exclude the sun throughout the year. In high density areas, it is often not possible to ideally orientate a home, so always speak to your Whitsunday Builder or architect about the best methods and techniques to employ.

Establishing the true or ‘solar’ north for the area in which you wish to build is a good step to deciding how to orientate a home. Use a compass to find magnetic north and then simply add 7, the magnetic variation for the Whitsunday Region. By establishing the sun’s path, it becomes much simpler to see how to orientate your home for maximum solar gain or exclusion throughout the year.

Home Building for Year Round Comfort

Passive heating involves orientating the home to maximise heating from the summer in winter and minimising solar heating during warmer months. In Queensland the winters are warm, so it is cooling in summer which is vitally important, avoiding the need for artificial cooling as much as possible.

Choosing the Right Whitsunday Building Plot

Wherever possible, choose a building plot which runs north to south as they receive access to the northern sun whilst minimising the possibility for overshadowing from other properties. During the summer months this orientation will provide shelter from low east and west sun if there are neighbouring dwellings. Whichever side of the street your plot is located always try to accommodate living areas to the north elevation. If located on the north side of the street, living areas can be located to the rear, giving privacy. If located on the south side of the street the design should be wide enough to give a north facing exterior space, whilst also providing an entrance and living area. For building plots which run east to west the design should include a north facing garden. Take advantage of any available views to the north, as this is the best location for windows. If the view is to the south, try to avoid large glassed areas which can cause over heating in summer.

The Home Design

The ideal orientation is between fifteen degrees west to twenty degrees east of solar north. Orientation such as this allows for eve overhangs which will admit the winter sun whilst excluding solar gain in the hot summer months. This basic design admits the sun when needed and excludes as much as possible when not required with zero additional requirements made on the occupants.

If you are selecting a home try to consider the following:

• Are the rooms already orientated for ideal solar gain? If no, can it be easily changed?
• Which way are living areas orientated? North facing is ideal.
• Is there plenty of glass on north facing elevations? Ten to twenty five percent of the total footprint of the room is ideal
• Are west facing windows appropriately shaded? If no, can this be easily amended?
• Check how other buildings, trees and any other surrounding structures effect the shading of the building as this will affect the solar gain of your dwelling.
• If installing solar collectors, such as solar panels, make sure these receive year round access to the sun.
• Also consider clothes drying areas – avoid the tumble dryer all year round!

This article only contains the very basic principles of orientation, always talk to your Whitsunday builder who will be able to provide tailored advice about home orientation.

A sloping plot can be both a blessing and a curse. Once the house is constructed, the advantage of waking up to a stunning hillside view can be breath taking, but getting there can be fraught with unexpected costs and difficult decisions. Some of the disadvantages of building on a sloping block are outlined below, followed by the advantages and two popular construction methods.

Things to Consider when Purchasing a Sloping Plot

Before purchasing a plot of land with a significant gradient it’s worth considering accessibility. Will the home have a very steep driveway that will be difficult to access during colder months, perhaps if it is very wet or windy? When accessing the home on foot, will there be many steps to climb which could render the property inaccessible for those with walking difficulties? Access is a common issue that is overlooked when thinking about building on a sloped site, but if you can’t easily get in and out, or have to do twenty trips to get the groceries through the front door, it quickly becomes un-liveable. Another issue with accessibility concerns the construction phase; builders may charge more to work on a site with very difficult access as larger machinery may not be able to operate, making the actual construction take much longer.

Drainage problems can crop up in any home, but on sloping site this can be extremely dangerous. Mud-slides can literally move your home downhill or destroy it all together. In climates such as the Whitsunday region where the wet season is indeed very wet, it is imperative that proper drainage be installed in the site and it is regularly checked and maintained.

Cutting down trees on a sloping plot where you intend to build a home is a definite no-no. Established trees have vast root networks which are supporting the land, cut these down and you could have a real problem on your hands.

The Advantage of Building on a Sloped Site

The main attraction of building on a sloping plot is the ability to take advantage of a spectacular view, and the Whitsunday region is certainly not short of those. Waking up to the crystal ocean surrounded by forest overlooking small towns and harbours can be emotionally sustaining, the value of which cannot be underestimated.

Pole Homes and Retaining Walls

The two common construction methods used for sloping sites are poles to support the structure above and retaining walls. Pole-homes are dwellings supported by a series of poles which raise the floor level above that of the slope. This causes the least disruption to the environment as the home is partially raised above the ground, so the flora and fauna remains undisturbed. Pole homes can be advantageous concerning the stability of the plot as disturbing as little of the environment as possible leave root networks and natural drainage intact.

A home built using the retaining wall method is quite the opposite in terms of environmental disruption. The site must be excavated into level platforms which continue up the site, covering the footprint of the new dwelling. When building with retaining walls it is essential to thoroughly research all the considerations listed above to ensure the longevity of the building.

For more information about pole-homes and constructing with retaining walls, contact Brian of Allenbuild. Brian has both knowledge of the region and experience with building dwellings on sloping plots, so you can be assured your new home construction in the Whitsundays is in safe hands.