Thread: Building a house: Face North or South?

Should I build my house with the windows, doors, terrace, etc facing South? Or North?

I think it should face South!


For years I've been reading house-construction threads here and on various other sites and I think I've never seen a single thread where the house-owner built the house facing south.
Everyone, almost automatically I guess, says: You should build (if there's a choice to do so), your house facing north (living-room, windows, terrace etc) so that you don't heat up your house from the sun.

But is this true? My current house in Pathumthani is built facing almost perfectly north. However, facing north means that from March until September, the sun is at the front of our house, shining on the walls and windows there, making it really hot. March to September obviously are the hot and humid months.

The sun moves south (relative to the house) over the roof and starts shining on the south-side during the Oct-February period.
Now the thing is, those months are the coolest months in Thailand, and often October and November are very cloudy with the raining season in full swing.
So the heat-gain on the south-side during those months is limited, sure far less than the heat-gain on the north-side.

Advantages: during those hot summer months, sun is behind the house you part of your terrace will be in the shadow of the house.
The average temperature is much lower, which offsets the heat-gain from the sun shining directly on your terrace.

Curious to hear the comments on this..

Cheers,
Luc

Best for resale value

Northern Hemisphere

^^ if you aren't planning eaves that don't allow the sun to hit your windows and walls except very late in the day then i'd not face it south.

Whatever you do with shade you will still get heat transference through the roof unless properly insulated and single glazed windows will allow ambient heat transfer also.

Orienting your house alone won't solve the heating up issue is what i am getting at.

Our house in Isaan faces north but that makes the living room (at the front of the house) very dark and dingy a lot of the time. But despite a sala all along the south side of the house, the south side is often too hot. We never use aircon downstairs.

For a long time I have been thinking about installing air vents in the upstairs ceilings and one of those whirlygig thing on the roof to try and get air flowing through.

It's not only the N-S orientation that matters. Since building the house I have discovered that the perennial wind direction here is from the east. That cool easterly breeze can be a real relief in the hot season and had I known about it beforehand I would have designed the house differently.

Ain't hindsight a wonderful thing.

Being so close to the equator, I don't think it matters much.

Thanks for the replies guys. Fair points, indeed it's a package of measures that keep the house cool.
Mendip, yes indeed, wind direction. Need to keep that in mind. Finally bought land in Hua Hin, so next 2 years I hope to get started with our house there.

As for the cooling with a 'whirlygig thing': Got one on the roof, (highest point) on top of a glass solar chimney. That really helps getting the heat out!
In Vietnam you see them everywhere. Hot months, when there's no wind, the solar chimney will still pull air up and out of the house.
If you install one, make sure you put a fair sized drip-plate below it so you don't get any water damage to your ceilings.
Shouldn't need any drain, it'll evaporate quickly with airflow over it.

Not sure though if air vents in ceilings will be really effective if you got vented eaves.
Picture of what I did..There's steelbars welded in below the roof to prevent any adventurous Thai from entering the house other than through the front door.

Originally Posted by TTraveler

Being so close to the equator, I don't think it matters much.

It matters. My house faces west and has good ventilation throughout the first floor. We only use the air during the peak of the hot season. But upstairs two bedrooms face west as well. They dont have the benefit of cross ventilation and during March - mid June they are quite hot. Bearable but you do have to turn on the air conditioners by 8 if you want to sleep around 10pm.

But by facing this way the garden, and lawns stay green and nice. We like orchids and they seem to thrive on the south side of the house as they get a lot of shade from large trees.

Ref air venting and prevailing winds - we have a fairly constant breeze in one direction too and we built with a gabled roof and vented the gables with large louvres which works well, oh and upper floor ceiling vents

Nice solar water heater, how much was that?

^ Cheers Luc

My 2 bht worth.

House design and roof construction and insulation have a significant impact on how the house dissipates the heat. Adequate ventilation is paramount. Coupled with that is get as many big trees planted on the outside perimeter of the house. Keeping sun off any wall whether Q con or red brick makes all the difference as well.

Our house is on pillars so we are always very cool down stairs. We never run ACs even at peak heat season. Upstairs I use ceiling fans that keep air moving. My wife and I choose to run AC in our bedroom at night to not only keep air moving and conditioned but nice to have the room around 25 to 26c. We have tried the sleeping with the windows open but the air flow at night just dies up here in Lampang so it just "hangs" and with burn season in play now, I prefer all windows closed. Keeps smell and dust down. Our house indoors upstairs stays about 25c to 28c which is comfortable but honestly during the day we are not up there much as we spend almost all our time downstairs, outdoors.

If Feng Shui isn't a problem I'd make sure your bedroom and living room are not on the side when the sun sets.

Good Luck on your project.

We're also facing west and there's always a breeze downstairs. Sun is a bit annoying at about 8am when the sun shines in the TV for a couple of hours but that's what curtains were made for.

Originally Posted by armstrong

We're also facing west and there's always a breeze downstairs. Sun is a bit annoying at about 8am when the sun shines in the TV for a couple of hours but that's what curtains were made for.

You have lost me as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. My direct sun is coming from the east at 8am.

FWIW, the hottest side of my house is the West, where it collects the late afternoon sun once it is below the eaves, which have an overhang of 3m and I'd make it 4 or 5 if I were to do it again.
The walls are QCon and there is zero heat transfer there, the problem is the window. During the day there is also significant heat reflected off the concrete driveway, which is west of the house, I hadn't anticipated that.

To Shutree's comment. I have mentioned on a few occasions keep cement or paved surfaces at least 3 to 4 meters away from the dwelling. As he noted that reflects sun which is heat and once cement or asphalt becomes saturated its like having a heating blanket around your property. Either do grass or heavy shade trees.

Originally Posted by Stumpy

keep cement or paved surfaces at least 3 to 4 meters away from the dwelling.

My drive is about 10m away from the house and it is still too close. It becomes a mirror, in effect. I am trying to grow some small shade trees on the far side and thinking of a lower hedge on the nearside to cut down on the reflection.

Originally Posted by Shutree

My drive is about 10m away from the house and it is still too close. It becomes a mirror, in effect. I am trying to grow some small shade trees on the far side and thinking of a lower hedge on the nearside to cut down on the reflection.

Agreed Shu, anything to block the sun helps. I have mature trees around the entire perimeter of the house. No portion of the house directly has sun beaming down on it. Early on in the the late afternoon the sun would hammer the house where my FIL's and guest rooms are even with descent eaves. Took me awhile to convince my wife to combat this is shade trees. We found and had delivered mature trees versus waiting 10 years for small ones to grow. Money well spent and they weren't expensive.

Hello Guys, that's loads of replies..I see several comments on my future construction and to post it here.
Though this was kind of a theoretical question, it sure brought some useful info to pay attention to.
There's a thread I posted here: Our future home quite some time ago and we finally bought the land early this year.

Land orientation means that I'll likely have the front/windows facing North - North East. But at the same time, it's up the hill, right below the top.
With some work on the original design, there's plenty of opportunity to catch a sea-breeze through every part of the house most times of the day.

Still, construction won't start until next year, busy with a Reno in Petchaburi first. Good opportunity to find a decent construction company.

Cheers,
Luc

Originally Posted by Stumpy

Agreed Shu, anything to block the sun helps. I have mature trees around the entire perimeter of the house. No portion of the house directly has sun beaming down on it. Early on in the the late afternoon the sun would hammer the house where my FIL's and guest rooms are even with descent eaves. Took me awhile to convince my wife to combat this is shade trees. We found and had delivered mature trees versus waiting 10 years for small ones to grow. Money well spent and they weren't expensive.

Indeed, shading is the way to go. Our place is east facing at the front, obviously west at the rear. Early morning sun glare downstairs is prevented by some trees. This around 8 a.m.



What is an upstairs landing level window gets hit, but doesn't impact on the open plan downstairs.



The west facing rear is 95% covered terrace, the outer periphery of which is shrouded in M'Sahibs hanging plants which stops the late afternoon glare and heat.



Like most people, we only have fans downstairs, with A/C with fans for the bedrooms. Phuket rarely gets cool enough at night for a fan only scenarioi for sleeping. The main living area has 4 ceiling fans, and one of the patio doors has a lockable security mesh type door which helps with through airflow.

^ I've never thought about it before but I sleep with my head pointing south, and I sleep awfully.

When we built the house I added all the bedroom furniture layouts into the house plans and as the wife seemed happy with everything I had all the electricity sockets positioned for the beds etc. Wind on a few months and when the house was finished and furniture added the wife starts going on about bed directions... "oh no, we can't have that bed that way round", etc etc. It was at this point I realised that she can't only read maps but also house plans and my carefully planned bedrooms ended up with extension leads all over the place.

It wasn't the wife of course... she doesn't know North or South from a hole in her head. It was her family sticking their oar in. Thankfully her family no longer have any influence and I've gradually re-arranged furniture back to as it should have been!

I get my best sleeps when working at sea on a boat and my head may point to all points of the compass during my sleep.

^

Yea the auspicious thing in Thailand with regards to sleeping is, we think, from when they burn you or something like this. Oh you can also not have the next rooms feet pointing towards your head.

The north thing for me doesn't really make sense because there are periods in my life when I have great sleep and periods that I don't. So not sure what to make of it really.

Never slept at sea but we are going to learn how to sail when we move to the UK, guess I will find out someday!

Sleeping south direction...hmmm.. same as Mendip, head is south, but sleeping aweful for quite some time already.
Under a window, which seems not good according to Thai tradition. Head of the bed should be against an inside wall.
Makes sense in our case, as the sun heats up the single brick front and it radiates heat the whole night..lol. Can't move the bed anywhere else for now though, one more reason to hurry with construction.

Bedroom on the Southeast corner of the house. Headboard facing east against a wall but not the outer east wall. So far no unusual bad luck and sleep like a baby.