Solar
Consider designing for max summer sun after summer solstice when it is hottest at the lake. Perhaps mid-July for example. Or to hear this author speak, not at all ... ""We shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater by installing overhangs which are counterproductive most of the year and only marginally helpful in August (at least in my climate).Solar gain in the spring and fall should generally be maximized and the heat stored to minimize any overheating. Overhangs, which by design will be shading as much as half of the glass in these seasons, should be avoided." http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/guest-blogs/contrarian-view-passive-solar-design
"If in November, the difference in outside temperature from 65 F was 15 degrees (50 outside average temp) for 30 days, the number of heating degree days for November is 450 (30 days x 15 degrees)... hope this helps." Houzz reader response to my question about how to calculate heating days. RCB: get heating days for last 3 years to smooth out outlying years. .
This sun chart of our vaulted 14' x 28' solar gain space. "9 to 3 p.m is prime window of sun." However, our cabin will be oriented of SW of S, so our prime widow shifts to later in the day. "Using deciduous trees to shade the south elevation in summer is a major design error. This is a myth that won’t go away. Don’t do it! This theory holds that deciduous trees and vines will shade south-facing windows in the summer and reduce heat gain, while in the winter, when the leaves are down, sun will be able to enter and heat the house. It doesn’t work. The problem is that the limbs of any tree tall enough to shade the windows in the summer will significantly block the lower winter sun, even with the leaves down. In my area (central Pennsylvania), most of the leaves don’t fall until November anyway, after there have been many cool days and nights when the solar gain would have been useful. Any new house site should be evaluated with one of the solar path devices to ensure that NO shading will occur within 45° or more east and west of the south elevation, any time of year. A related problem with tall trees to the south is the likelihood of shading any rooftop thermal or PV collectors in t...
"Orienting a house east or west of true south by up to 20° will have no significant effect on solar performance. "For example, I currently live in two virtually identical passive solar buildings, a residence and a studio. The studio faces due south and the residence faces 25° west of south. By the end of a sunny day, the overall solar performance of the two buildings is almost identical, with the house performing slightly better in the spring and fall and the studio doing slightly better in the middle of winter. In general, I favor orienting a passive house at least 10° west of south to improve late-day heat gain while slightly increasing east-facing window area to improve early-day warmup." http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/guest-blogs/contrarian-view-passive-solar-design?page=1 RCB: Current Minneapolis home's orientation (~223 degrees magnetic) has similar orientation as future cabin (230). Our home in 2nd week in Dec: morning sun stretched 24+ ft across the floor until sunlight washed up against the kitchen cabinets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1hos0futH0 " Most rules of thumb for south-facing glazed area assume that the storage mass is located only in the south-facing rooms, and they assume direct conduction of the solar heat into that storage. This method is relatively slow and inefficient, except for the limited surface areas which are directly in the sun, and often results in overheating. It fails to take full advantage of the available mass in rooms remote from the sun, as well as the advantages that occur when heated air is moved through hollow masonry walls or hollow floor slabs to remote mass storage. A house with a larger-than-normal glazed area (which could be 30%+ of the floor area of the south-side rooms) can still be comfortable and productive if solar heat is moved mechanically out of these areas and circulated into other rooms and, most importantly, directly into supplemental storage mass. I have designed a number of homes using this approach, which involves using a thermostatically controlled fan (usually the furnace blower) set to start when the temperature at the ceiling or ridge of the space rises above a set point of about 75°F. This same system is also useful to store ...
Overhang calculation and visualization tool: http://susdesign.com/popups/overhang/instructions.php
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