Sunshine planning

ponykilr

Guest
We recently bought 15 acres in the mountains and are in the beginning stages of picking a site for a home (remember the steel house thread?).

As you can see above, the back of our mobile home faces NW (photo is oriented N straight up) This means that in the summer, the sun really bakes the back of it in the afternoon...right when you wish it was shaded. Mornings up until lunch are really nice, then it gets sunny directly overhead and as the sun moves west (left) the AC has to be on to be comfortable inside.

It is nice in the winter, but heating is cheaper and easier that cooling and can be done with no electricity.

If we use the site we are thinking for a home, we’ll have the same problem. The site faces the back pasture and is right below the “45” in the aerial photo above. We would like the house to be fairly close to the trailer so we can use the same well and septic.

After studying this, I think sliding it back ESE (slightly down and right) into the woods a little farther would be beneficial.

Any thoughts on this?



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My house faces south so the sun crosses over the ridgeline more or less. We have no windows on either end of the house. This works well for us for multiple reasons. My wife planned it that way and it worked out great. I don't see any issues with your plans unless it looses fall to the septic field and then you are possibly looking at pumping. Nice site!!
 
The little piece of woods there below the trailer and barn is all slightly higher than the area above it so septic shouldn’t be an issue.
 
you going to take the trailer out? the local code people may not let you us septic for house and trailer.

On house site, i like getting winter sun. even if it doesn't help with heating or cooling. staying shaded all winter will bring you down. FYI my electric bill is cheaper in the summer than winter with a heat pump and burning wood in winter. winter always cost more money to heat then cool for me.

plus if your shaded in winter you will have alot more moisture build up over time.
 
If it helps, there are some free solar tracking web sites so you can see the path of the sun plotted through the year as a map overlay at your exact location. I have a few bookmarked for when we were thinking about replacing our shitty windows; I was figuring out what type of solar coatings I wanted at various locations on the house.
 
The accepted 'best' orientation for the southeast is the long walls (of a basic rectangle) facing N and S, so you get low winter sun and then it's high overhead in the summer. The alternative is deep enough overhangs &/or trees to shade in the summer. We have deep overhangs but a N-S orientation because of the road. Enough trees to make it not too much of an issue although the kids complain about the glare on the east side in the mornings.

A new house is going to be better insulated than a trailer, fwiw.

I'm with @Loganwayne on daylight in winter and making good use of any views you like, not excluding entry to the property.
 
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