Some great ideas there. Anything that keeps the sun off the walls is a great start such as a covered verandah on all sides.
A pest proof insulation in the ceiling, light coloured roof with ventilation 3.6 metre (12ft) high ceilings. a raised vented floor. Plenty of trees to capture the local cooling effect of transpiration from the trees. double insulated reflective windows.
Something worth consideration is a centralised in roof ducted extraction fan that will draw air through the whole house and will lessen the need for refrigerated air con.
Yep, shade and lots of it. problem is the roof is hard to shade, insulation helps, were too influenced by western architecture, need minimum windows here, wish I'd followed my own advice! Invariably in summer need AC, the floors in the house are 24c now, in the middle of summer they will get to 31c, hard to overcome, theirs a 1m air gap underneath, but just gets so dam hot!
House was painted about 8 years ago, and the roof tiles were going to be a charcoal grey, with all that meant in terms of heat absorbtion. Had 50mm of sprayed foam applied to the underside of the tiles and supporting steelwork. This has the added bonus of locking the tiles in place, preventing movement and potential leaks. I've been up in the roof space quite a lot recently due to some ongoing water system problems, and the temperature up there is essentially the same as the bedrooms, probably around 5 degrees less than prior to having the foam.
The house colour scheme.
each to their own, but my practical experience in Australia would lead me to disagree. There was a noticeable difference when I installed one, and when I took off the access panel to do something in the roof cavity I could feel just how much air was being sucked up into the roof space, and out through the whirlygig.
Best way to shade a roof? Easy..Solar-panels.. There's a noticeable difference here in the factory after removing the whirly-gigs and installing solar-panels!
SCG who installed the panels estimated it would help bring down the temperature by an average 2.5'C. That's a big improvement..
Now, that seems contradictory to my other post that whirly-gigs help cooling the house, but the factory is a big open space with loading doors open and the whirly-gigs would pull air out. This would then be replaced by outside air through the doors, which is heated up by the concreted spaces around the factory.
With the solar-roof, we're basically shading most of the factory and pulling in less hot air from the outside.
This is a very different scenario from the experience I have with the whirly-gig at home of course.
Last edited by Schuimpge; 07-03-2023 at 09:41 AM.
Looks great PAG and what a great idea! Love the glass bricks as well, bathroom?
^^
Nice looking plot.
Looking from the south is the master bedroom, it has a flat roof with a bar on top - (which in ten years we have never once used), painted the roof tiles with a "special" heat repelling paint - it lowers the surface temp ~10c - be great for a roof but be too expensive.
Just curious: Was the roof leaking before the application? Or started leaking afterwards?
We made a mistake not to replace the cement-fibre plates before it was sprayed on. There's one corner giving us problems. Hard to fix with the PU-foam applied.
But overall, it made the roof super-strong and quiet.
Our master bedroom is NE corner of house with headboard pointing north. Bed against the wall in between 2 large windows. Morning sun in big window on east wall but no heat and like Norton sleep like a baby. Honestly (and fortunately) my wife didn't care about any of the Feng Shui stuff sans the location of the buddha statues in the house which are in the upstairs TV room ( basically my office) and are mounted on the south wall facing North....I dunno as I don't pay attention to any of that mumbo jumbo. We decorated as we felt.
@ PAG, Nice place. Like the curved staircase. Are those snacks on the counter in the dog bowl? Nice to have them available for guests.
? It was a long time ago, at least 15 years, no longer able to search old posts, recall posting here about the whole saga. Roof only leaked when the wind gusted in a certain manner - it would go many months with no leaks, remember that bit. We had a similar problem is this house, took 7 years to find where the water was coming from - (it was blowing up the gable end and getting into house when the wind was blowing hard from the west) was hard to locate as doesn't rain that much up here, we ended up taking the ceiling down in the area that we thought the leak was and watching from below when it eventually had the right conditions....
Shade trees which made/make a huge difference in keeping a house cool assuming the roof/attic has proper ventilation
East wall where MB and upstairs balcony overlooking the pool. Sun never hits the wall due to trees and longer eaves
West wall where the sun sets and is the hottest, large shade trees that cover the house wall. Currently at ~ 2:30 pm today and 35.8c out, the guest bedroom and my FIL's room upstairs is 28c with no AC or ceiling fan running.
Which wall Shu?
I can find out the names. 3 of them on the west side are the same flowering trees. They smell really nice, grow fast and have large leaves. You can easily find large mature trees and have them brought in for a very very reasonable price and not wait 5 years for them to grow larger.
From what I can find, it is a Michelia Champaca Tree or Champa.
It grows hearty leaves. loves full sun, flowers 3 times a year. They grow relatively fast.
I have 2 small ones growing now as we will add a few more. They do drop leaves on and off FYI.
We also have this very nice smelling bay tree on the corner area heading down the west wall. Offers full shade.
Another very hearty shade tree is the one above. HUGE leaves, full shade. grows well but does drop very large leaves randomly. we have one that shades the outside kitchen. Wife loves it.
This is me looking up directly at the sun at 3:20PM today and no sun hits the house or underneath the house. It has full shade.
Again, just some ideas or suggestions.
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