Construction & Contractors Blog
Many situations in life are better faced with an active approach, as opposed to a passive one. But what about when it comes to house designs for your new living space? When considering the new home you intend to build, have you considered the concept of passive design? It won't necessarily require all that many changes to your preliminary ideas, and is an easy way to make your new home more environmentally friendly. But what exactly is passive design? And why should it be utilised in house construction?
Passive Design
In a nutshell, passive design essentially means that your home is configured in a manner that means it doesn't require much heating or cooling. This might be ensuring that certain parts of the home are fitted with extra shading to reduce its internal heat, with appropriate insulation that will regulate the home's temperature, along with the strategic positioning of doors and windows to maximise the use of the external climate.
Positioning and Orientation
Perhaps one of the primary ways in which a home can utilise a passive design is precisely where it is positioned and orientated on the site. Average yearly hours of sunshine need to be assessed, and it can be prudent to position and orientate the home in a location on the site where it will neither be underwhelmed or overwhelmed by sunshine, thus ensuring a moderate temperature in interior of the home. This means that unless your home is in the warmer regions of Australia with vast amounts of sunshine, the home should be north-facing (or at least facing approximately north).
Additions
There are a number of additions that can assist passive design in terms of shading. This can include window awnings and adjustable shutters, and even shade providing eaves. It's really about ensuring that the windows of the home are provided with adjustable shade providers, thus preventing the sun's temperature from being amplified through the glass. This is why the best possible positioning and orientation of the home on the site is vital. If the amount of shading is not applied with consideration to the amount of sunshine that will be received, then the home might in fact become too cold and dark.
A home that utilises passive design will reduce your heating and cooling bills, which is good news for the environment as well as your wallet. Achieving a passive design is not all that difficult, so it's really something that you should consider if you're planning to build a new home. For more information or assistance, contact companies like A.P.T. Design Drafting & Construction Pty Ltd.
Share28 March 2017
Hello, my name is Colin and this is my construction blog. When people think of the construction industry, they often just imagine guys in hard hats building brick walls. While this is a popular image of the industry, it doesn't reflect the true diversity of different contractors and tradesmen who are involved in a construction project. Lasy year, my wife and I decided to construct our dream home. I had to arrange visits of plumbers, roofers, electricians, surveyors and home builders in order to get the job done. I learnt a lot during that experience, so I decided to start this blog.