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I have purchased 23 acres in North Texas and would like to get some idea as to what direction do I site my house? The bulk of the property is flat with very low trees. I have read that you place the house North/South (long side facing South). I would really appreciate input on this.
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Replies
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just right... unless there is some view you want to take advantage of..
but you'll get the most passive solar gain by running the long side facing south...
*My guess is that you don't want your bedroom(s) in the later-day sun or it'll be hot at bedtime. I've lived in Arizona and this is my experience there, too. If possible it's good to have the living area in shade when you're using it more, say, in the evening - if that's so for your family. I find this applies regardless of trees, unless, of course, you're like us and live in the woods. Just think of your rooms and how you use them.
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Always face towards MECCA!
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The roof should point to the sky! Jeff
*Here are some compatible continuing thoughts:Make sure your compass is corrected for declination (if it is significant in Texas).
*Dammit it, I just can't help it. Jeff, ole boy, it is variation, as in magnetic, you mean. Declination is the angular distance north or south of the celestial equator. Sorry.
*Siting is important. Figure what your best bet is in Texas. Telling you what we did here in Ohio prob. does not apply. But fine tuning it to your climate will definately increase your comfort and save you bucks. Figure also (as has been mentioned) your lifestyle in the floorplan. Early risers, time in the kitchen, privacy etc all make an impact on the final design. Take your time and you may eliminate most of the "I wish we had done that's". Best of luck.
*Not so fast old boy. Declination is the angle between the geographic meridian and the i local magnetic meridian.The angle of declination for your specific location (9 degrees here in NJ) must be corrected before a compass is used properly. Instructions come with the directions for a good compass, such as a Brunton. There is a ring that you turn to correct for the local conditions, in our case 9 degrees or so.See here for clarification, dammit.b Been there, done that, can't remember ...
*Generally speaking the side with the most windows should be oriented in a southeasterly direction. The southeast direction is desirable in desert climates that have cool to cold winters. During the winter the southerly orientation combined with the low sun angle captures solar radiation fairly well. During the summer the same southeasterly orientation allows the roof overhang to shade windows early in the day and block the sun. You get early morning sun before the heat of the day, and by 10-11 in the morning the sun is high enough that even modest eves and roof overhangs will shade your windows. West facing windows in hot climates are real cookers.If you are a serious artist then you want a room with a northern exposure. Supposedly the diffuse natural light from a north window is the best source for color selection when painting. There are large number of factors to consider, besides solar aspects. Prevailing winds, winter storms, natural obstacles, yada, yada, all can be determining factors. Head to the library or book store and check out some references.
*I'll tell you one thing that's worth a lot:Put the pool on the south side of the house. You'll get two extra months of use out of it, and a lot more comfort while you're in it.
*Hey, you might both be right. My Webster's Dictionary from 1957 lists, among others, the definition: the angular distance of a heavenly body N. or S. of the celestial equator , and: the angle made by the magnetic needle with the geographical meridian. Decay and Deterioration are also definitions for declination. One word, many uses.Frank
*Let's see; I spent some time in Wichita Falls which is North Texas. If I had to be in that climate I think I would face the main windows south and east unless there was a fantastic view some other direction. I would put the deck/patio on the east side; also the evening living space like family room, bedrooms, etc. Definitely would make sure I had big roof overhangs and good ventilation.I would also be sure to put a windbreak on the west and north sides.Given the tornados there you would do well to include an emergency shelter of some type that could also be your temporary living space for a few days after the tornado and before rescue gets set up.
*O.K. But she is siting a house in Texas, not on Jupiter. In context with not making a mistake in orienting a building using a compass, declination refers to the angle off the geographic meridian corresponding to your place, or site. My point is that if you don't correct your compass before using it, depending on your location (Canadians know this - there are weird declinations there, eh, as you get closer to the magnetic pole) you could be off enough to screw up your solar orientation. As you can see by the reference article(s) 5 degrees can make a difference.What do you find in your 1957 dictionary under 'motherboard'?b Been there, done that, can't remember ...
*Hey, wait up you guys. You're posting way faster than I have time. Jeff, I read Chris Goulet's report; I hope, for his sake, something important, like a grade, wasn't hanging in the balance. I suspect you hoped I wouldn't see, but right there at the top it says "declination (variation)". So, it seems he freely interchanges the two terms. Further along on page two, he states declination is called "variation in mariners' and aviators' jargon". Only a paragraph later does he mention that declination has a different meaning when used in celestial navigation. Heck, in regards to variation or declination, what would be more important to either a mariner or aviator than navigation? It seems Mr. Goulet is at once saying declination is variation and then saying the two are different.I won't even mention his confusion between convection currents and Brownian movement.BTW: what is local magnetic meridian? Is that another name for an isogonic line?
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How about building an underground house. It eliminates the tornado problem. Don't know about flooding.
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Could be some serious potential declination, however.
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yep, the generally accepted procedure is South. i also agree that most want their bedrooms in the east, as the west (settng sun) will heat up the room (it is possible to ad extra insualtion and triple glazed windows to offset this, if you are determined). but, if placing the bedroom on the east side, consider if you want to be "woken up" by the morning sun (personally, i love it!)
best advice possible: get someone on iste who can "read" the land and Put It Where They Tell You To. this is much more important then a great view (which, is, very very important, yes! but not as important as Where the house will be.) an expert will be able to tell you where to place your house to avoid ground water problems, strong wind problems, where the ground will give you the strongest foundation footing, avoid floods, etc., etc., etc. you get the idea. an ounce of prevention, etc.
(these experts are called geographic engineers in my neck of the woods - might have a different title in TX. an architect or a builder should know who you should talk to .)
enjoy!
-megan
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I'm sorry, when I read the title of this thread all I could think of, was "away from me, that thing might go off"....
*Mary,Run the house east/west, pool on the south, kitchen breakfast, master on the east: you get sun in the morning for your coffee on the east and it will be cooler for sleeping at night. Use a fair amount of glass on the south under wide eaves . . . the angle from the bottom of the glass sliders to the outside edge of the eaves should be your north latitude. This way the glass will be shaded in summer but you will get some heat gain in winter.Good luck
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Mary:
All these guys are way off base. I don't think they caught the gist of your question, "Which way do I point my house?"
I have been around the block a few times, so I feel more than qualified to approach this from an informed viewpoint. I'll cut to the quick.
When pointing a house, it is best to point in the direction of your strong arm. Pointing a house takes many, many hours and if you begin in the direction of your weak arm, you'll be tempted to change arms in mid-stream. Any declination in your technique will be exaggerated at the place where you changed the direction of your pointing.
Another important tip: Always use your weak arm to supprt your mud hod or mortar board.
In other words, if you are right handed, point to the right. If you are left handed, point to the left.
I hope I have helped where others have failed you.
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Jeff,
I believe the word you are looking for is "deviation" not declination. Declination refers to angular distance of a celestial object above the celestial equator. Variation is the word for correction either to or from magnetic north:
Ask any sailor: TVMDC . . . True Value Minus Deviation (Equals) Compass. If you are west of Magnetic True North, You subtract deviation from true north to get compass or add deviation to compass to get true north. The reverse is true if you are east of magnetic north.
Variation is also correct.
Hope this clouds the issue even further.
Regards
*Slight error correction (but only about 5 degrees):TVMDC as used by the U.S. Coast Guard: T=True North,V=+or-Variation,M=Magnetic North,D=+or- the individual compass deviation, C equals Compass.By the way, in the country side, the section roads run N/S, E/W. And as for a 5 degree error in situating a house, that's only 20 minutes sun time (1440/360). I doubt any solar or photovoltaic system would be much affected by that. The vertical angle (usually the latitude) is more important than the building orientation.
*Would you use the T-111 on the inside or outside walls?
*... Obviously after that, it's time to throw in the trowel, due to declining humor. I had hoped that a former Canadian boy scout (are there boy scouts in Canada?) would rescue me on the declination thing.Oh wellb Been there, done that, lost in the woods orienteering
*The kitchen/dining room windows should be towards the sun at dinner time. Bathroom towards the north; the front door towards the east, garage door towards the east or south. bedroom windows towards the east/south. (Only an opinion).
*Don't throw in the towel yet. You will find hope at the Boys Scouts of America website. http://www.bsa.scouting.org/Couldn't find any info on the Canadian troups but we could "Mount" a search. I hear they are looking for Scout Masters for their map reading classes.
*Uh, Bill, that actually wasi trowelie, like pointing like, mortaring, oh ... never mind.b Been there, Done that, Still looking for Hope (she's not with the Scouts)
*DECLINATION - Defined by the professional compass maker, Brunton, Inc.Please see the hot link below, and stop arguing!b Been there, done that, do it again
*Jeff,Touché!P.S. What is Ailtire?
*Jeff,A rather vial link but had good bearing on the subject. Websters concurs with Brunton and defines motherboard as a 5-1/8 x 21 x 30'GLB. Guess it boils down to local use.By the way, this is bantering not arguing.
*A wee bit of Gaelic for you to ponder over. Then it can be i bantered about.
*... Did you notice that Brunton indicates that in their compasses they use 'mineral sprites'?
*They also talked about white housing with knurled edges . . . is that the T-111 on the basement walls?
*Boy are you guys out of touch. The hottest thing since astrology is siting a house according to the ancient art of Feng Shui. (Brought to by those same folks that balance their ying and yang and heal through energy meridians). I think you are supposed to hire an expensive consultant to sense the energy flows in your place (and the size of your bank account). I did a quick run on my favorite web search engine and was surprised by the number of web resources, as well as consultantss, for Feng Shui so maybe I should actually find out something about it. Nah, I have enough to worry about with the permit paperwork flows without having to worry about the energy flows. (The usual disclaimer: I know nothing about what I am talking about here, which of course doesn't stop me at all...)I have read that in some areas of the country, notably Los Angeles, that there are sufficient number of adherents of Feng Shui that the resale value of your house can be damaged if it violates the basic tenants of Feng Shui. However, the same article quoted an architect that said following basic Feng Shui principles usually results in pretty good design elements.Aiming my house toward the view... CR
*I agree w/ya about the view, Casey. However, the rapidly expanding Chinese (and other Asians) community in CA takes Feng Shui very seriously. Possibly because it's a respected, few thousand year-old practice in their native country? (In case someone doesn't know, it's pronounced FUNG SCHWAY and means wind and water.)
*In the Navy, we had a "gouge" for remembering TVMDC: True Virgins Make Dull Companions... Anyone remember the gouge for CDMVT?Aviatorly, Steve
*Please don't get into Brownian movement... We've had enough threads on 1.6 GPF toilets already!Flushingly, Steve
*pulled out FM6-2..magnetic declination is the angle between true north and magnetic north..it is east or west declination...declination constant is horizontal clockwise angle betweeen true north and magnetic north..yada yada yada..for our purposes.. we will erect a shadow stick and mark the top of the shadow ...at several marks before and after noon.... at its shortest point , the shadow will construct a line to solar noon... which is what we want to determine sun orientation..(true north-south).....in several years of trying to determine north - south for solar homes, we always used one of four methods... having the surveyor stake out true north..or doing a map inspection ..or using the shadow stick ..(you can make a short cut if you know when true solar noon is going to occur)or using a compass and hoping for the best, which had to be corrected for declination and hidden magnetic disturbance....the shadow stick usually won... then we modified the orientation for local conditions.... like solar reflectance off a body of water... or immoveable shade objects... or prevailing winter weather patterns ((( sunny mornings as opposed to sunny afternoons)).or a view ... or the appearance from the street....ie:....if you want the long private part of the house facing south.. buy a lot on the south side of an east-west street...or have the driveway approach the house from the east or west to the north side of the house..most of the time twenty degrees one way or the other was just fine depending on what we developed for a strategy...but it sure was fun discussin all that esoteric jazz..b but hey, whadda i no ?
*b TVMDCNo but I know the difference between a girls' track team and a bunch of pigmys.b CDMVT, hmmmm
*i ... the same article quoted an architect that said following basic Feng Shui principles usually results in pretty good design elements...Well, they believe in many things that don't result in necessarily good or bad design but are more related to the superstitious, such as not putting a door out the back of a house that lines up with the front door. That's an example of a basic Feng Shui principle that has nothing to do with a design element in the western sense.Jeff
*For those interested in more on Feng Schui, you can look here: PS - I'd love to know how to change the above to one word and still have it hot link ...
*b TVMDCAfter the ... href="gazillioncharacters.com">Type-your-one-word-here followed by the "less than" symbol, a slash and a>That should do it.b CDMVT
*Thanks, Bill - how many zeros in a gazillion?Jeff
*b TVMDCAbout 3-4 clicks of the lower screen scroll barb CDMVT
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Mary, sting your house should be determined by the part of the country you live in, its weather and the lay of your land. I live in north Fort Worth, and I would never put a room I would want to keep cool on the south. We both know what summers are like here and a southern or western exposure is the very wariest. In New England, south or west would be the right position, but not Texas. Do you have a view on any of those acres? Where would you want a porch to sit in the evening and enjoy the view? Do you wake up early, or like to sleep late? Early needs an east facing bedroom so the rising sun can greet you. Late would be on the west. This is not fen shun. This is basic architecture sting I learned my first year in architecture school. Think about how you like to live and design your exposures to help that happen. Good luck.
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If you want to try "ah ten shun" build the house with glass walls and you and your neighbors will have the best view ever!
*b TVMDCBut which way would you point the house: North or use a Trowel?b CDMVT
*huh?
*Bill, as I recall, it was "Can Dead Men Vote Twice"Makes no real sense, but was easily remembered...Steve
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I have purchased 23 acres in North Texas and would like to get some idea as to what direction do I site my house? The bulk of the property is flat with very low trees. I have read that you place the house North/South (long side facing South). I would really appreciate input on this.