One of the main features of our house design is to incorporate passive solar design & thermal mass principles.

Our house faces north, meaning most of our living areas have northern windows. The eaves are large enough to shade our northern windows all day during the hot summer months, and will let the sun and warmth in in the cooler winter months.

Our floor plan is shown below (some changes to internal walls and windows were made after this plan was drawn up):

Over the central living area we have high celestory windows that will allow the winter sun into the house. The high ceilings in this area (4.5m at the highest point) allowed us to have a small loft above the pantry (which I think now is one of the coolest areas of our house - thanks to Jayn our draftsperson for the suggestion!).

VIEW FROM THE NORTH-EAST CORNER

On the south wall of this central living area, between it and bedrooms 2 & 3 we have a 30cm rammed earth wall. This earth wall, along with our concrete slab, gives our house a great thermal mass, which should stabilise the temperature in our house all year round.

THE RAMMED EARTH WALL BEFORE ANY OTHER BUILDING HAD STARTED

The rammed earth wall is a beautiful feature of our house and is stunning. And we don't have to paint it!

I hope our windows don't let these design aspects down - but more on windows in another post.

 

 

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