Home Siting
Taking Advantage of living in the Southwest.
Siting your home is a critical step which is often neglected or overlooked. Sometimes a ready made plan really isn’t suited for a particular site. This is where you want a custom plan that considers the site, orientation, configuration and size of your home.
Passive Solar design features
Unfortunately most builders don’t consider where we live. With over 300+ days of sunshine it doesn’t make sense not to take advantage of the free heat provided by our southwest location. This is passive solar, using the sun passively to heat our home. No power requirements involved just conscious siting and correct window placements. First we need a site with south exposure with no interrupting features such as mountains, buildings or dense tree cover. Next we need a home designed with a predominantly long east/west axis (there are exceptions). We also need large south facing windows, a fair amount, more will help negate heating requirements on sunny days. A thickened slab or thermal mass wall to the south can increase the heat retention which is released after the sun goes down and evens out temperature swings. Finally we need a small overhang over those south facing windows to provide shade on those walls during the summer. This prevents overheating during high noon during the summer season. Also a plus is to minimize west facing window exposure. This doesn’t mean you can’t have west facing windows it means you need to protect against summer overheating as the sun declines to the west. This can be done with small window overhangs or west facing porches. We also must protect to a lesser degree the east facing windows during the summer. There is nothing worse than having the sun overheat an east facing room compounded by a super efficient wall system which only serves to contain more heat. The cherry on top is a north facing porch, cool during the heat of the summer. With a south facing passive solar home, a warmer micro climate will be created outside by reflected heat and is a great place to sit during the other three seasons. These are the major requirements to the ultimate passive solar home.
Fit the home to the land.
It makes sense to fit the home to the land whenever possible. Sometimes it’s just not possible with budget restraints or site restrictions. But rather than bulldozing a flat pad and creating an unsightly cut and fill, it may make more sense both economically and aesthetically to try another approach. Raising a home on piers can mitigate vegetative destruction particularly with sloped site conditions. Here in the Silver City area trees are precious and take many decades to reach mature size. Good practice calls for saving these resources whenever possible. Fitting your home’s layout around trees, rock outcroppings and other natural features is an important consideration in designing and siting your home.