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Passive Solar Stock Plan

sitdu
9 years ago

Hi I was hoping to get some help with this stock plan. It is from SunPlans, (Praire Dog 3) they specialize in passive solar house plans. I do have some issues with it and wondered if anyone else sees the same things I do.

-Bedroom #2 closet size, secondary bathroom arrangement, foyer area and storage.

In the kitchen, to note there are 2 archway opening allowing sightlines to the dining and living. The secondary bath seems to be set up for wheelchair access.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sun Plans Passive Solar Homes

Comments (20)

  • lazy_gardens
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    That plan is a dog's breakfast of poor space usage.

    The 2nd BDR bath needs to be way smaller, and they could save lots by putting sliding doors in

  • lavender_lass
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Not very impressed...

    I like this home {{gwi:2134278}}From Kitchen plans

    but flipped, so the dining room gets the east light :) {{gwi:2134279}}From Kitchen plans

  • _sophiewheeler
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Solar and stock are two words that should never be combined. By definition a passive solar house is designed precisely for the land and orientation on which it will sit. It ain't stock.

  • millworkman
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Exactly Holly......

  • BrianKnight
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Sitdu, congratulations on realizing the benefits of passive solar and your desire to implement the strategy in your new build. We built the Midnight Sun from Sunplans and it was an amazing experience working with Debra Coleman and the staff. The home is performing wonderfully and the homeowners seem to love it. Iam sure you know that Sunplans can create an entirely new design for your situation or modify an existing plan to suit your needs. We made some changes to our plan with them and the process went very smoothly.

    Lavender lass's plan looks pretty good. Seems like there could be some improvement in the performance aspects of the sun-facing elevation's many individual windows and big offset of the media room. I also dont like how the garage is very attached to the house which makes for bigger concerns of Indoor Air Quality. Not sure how that plan provider details the passive solar aspects like overhangs and high SHGC glass but I think it would be tough to match the level of detail provided by Sunplans in that area.

    While I mostly agree with hollyspgs and millworkman's comments, the same could be said for all designs that wish to fit a building site. Passive solar just makes it tougher on those after stock plans to understand orientation but its certainly not impossible. Ive met many prospect clients that know more than most professional architects about passive solar design.

    The simpler the plan, the easier it is to create one that fits a variety of different building sites. After finding a site with good southern exposure, the challenge becomes how the street or driveway interacts with the main entrance and garage if needed. West, East, and North entrances are best as it allows us to build a covered porch or entryway. South entrances are more problematic as these covered areas interfere with the winter sun. Word through the grapevine is that there is a Fine Homebuilding article coming soon that addresses some of these design and site issues regarding passive solar and how to improve a plan's performance on an otherwise imperfect passive solar lot. The below article features a picture of another passive solar stock plan floating around out there.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Cost-effective passive solar design

  • dekeoboe
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    We also built a passive solar house. I had considered having Debra Coleman do our design, but we ended up building soon than expected and went with a local architect. Debra's plans were all originally designed for a particular client and are now offered as stock plans. As pointed out by Brian, she will modify her existing plans or design a plan for your lot and needs.

    The problem with LL's plan for the OP is it appears the OP needs the front of the house to face north and the plan LL posted has the front of the house facing south. A lot with a south facing slope works well for a passive solar plan with a walk-out basement, which is what the OPs plan has, although I don't care for the layout.

  • edlincoln
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I love the idea of passive solar...it seems silly NOT to take into account the sun's heating ability wen building a house.

    However, the fact this house is passive solar kind of draws attention to my biggest pet peeve about most of these "evaluate my blueprints" posts. You, like most people, provide no information on the site. What direction is North? Any natural features that block the sun from a specific direction? We assume the south side will get the most sun, but that might not be true if there is a big hill or a skyscraper in that direction. Which direction is the road? What direction does the land slope? Is there a particularly good view in some direction? A neighbor a little too close?

    There are A LOT of stock plans out there...it seems to me 90% of the job is making sure there is no unique feature of your land that would require you to tweak this plan or try another.

    My other quibble with this plan is the bedrooms seem to be near the front door. People on the front porch can see into the bedroom. The foyer seems to direct people towards the laundry, bedroom or kitchen. I tend to think if you are going to have a Great Room and a Foyer, the foyer should direct people into the Great Room and away from the provate sections of the house.

  • sitdu
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This is a new plan that I created due to the failings of the first one. Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions; they are well considered and appreciated.
    This plan is not perfect; I realize that but it will be a good representation of our wants/needs that an architect can work from. I will seriously consider contacting Debra Coleman. I have to say, using a program that allows furniture placement really helps with the scale of things. I used AutoDesk Homestyler they offer 3D views, inside snapshots and 360 panorama’s to really visualize the space you are trying to create.

    The lot is a south/north orientation, with the garage access and street to the north, backyard to the south. House is well exposed, with no neighbours or trees to close to interfere with path of the sun. It is a flat lot, so there will be no option of daylight/walk out basement, but we plan to have south windows there to allow natural light, and no deck on the south of the house.

    I went with more lower cabinets (drawer style) in the kitchen to maximize sunlight into eat in kitchen. There is no pantry, but I will have a cold room in the basement for all surplus food supplies. The bottom corner cupboards will house larger and less frequently used items.

    I wanted to create a bit of separation from the living room, yet still have some site lines; I find open floor plans very loud. In the living room, I will have it set up so the TV can be moved to either the west or north wall, depending on the furniture seating. I might steal 2 feet from the sun room to allow for larger furniture options along south wall. There is a fireplace in the north-west corner of the living room.

    The sunroom: walls will be brick and the floor a stone tile to help with thermal mass storage. I will probably use it for starting plants in the late winter/early spring. The windows will all open to allow for heat ventilation in summer.

    I know the garage in front/attached garage is a strong issue for some people, but that is our lot restriction, and having a large garage on the north side of the house will make the house more protected from the cold north winter wind. As for the issue of exhaust and indoor air quality, would a person be able to add an exhaust fan to take these fumes out of the garage?

    When building this plan, I initially had wanted the front entry closed off, with a door to help keep heat from escaping. At this point, I’m kind stumped on how to do that, but I am satisfied with the current arrangement.

    I can’t decide whether to have the garage door entry on the west into foyer, or to the south, into the hallway across from the bathroom door. I can see the garage having a small area by the door for coats and shoes as well; this would primarily be the family entrance.

    As for linen storage, I haven’t built any in; I didn’t know where to put it, but the bathroom will have lots of storage in the long vanity, and moveable storage units. Between the large master closet and storage in the basement, I should be okay.

    All the interior doors are 36” and 9ft ceilings.

  • nostalgicfarm
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The long hallway between the foyer and living spaces would not work for me. I want guests to walk in to a nice view.

    This post was edited by nostalgicfarm on Sat, Jan 3, 15 at 21:18

  • amberm145_gw
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    So, the back of the house faces south, and you don't want decks on the south side. Do you plan to do any grilling? How would you get from the kitchen to the BBQ? Through the living room, through the sunroom, outside and then around to the west side?

    Your bedroom is bigger than your living room. You need more space to sleep than to live? The bathroom also seems to be a waste of space.

    The laundry closet right at the front door seems like a bad idea. It's a long way from where dirty clothes get produced. I know some people like that because it means no noise where you'd be trying to sleep. But having guests come in and literally see my dirty laundry doesn't seem pleasant.

    And do you love corner fireplaces? If not, don't put one in. They take up a lot of space. And they are hard to decorate and set up furniture around.

  • amberm145_gw
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I wanted to create a bit of separation from the living room, yet still have some site lines;

    What exactly does this mean to you? To me, what you have there is complete separation. There's a wall there, with your only upper cabinets. So you aren't going to have much sight lines. There's a walkway between the kitchen and living room, but there would have to be, unless non-"open concept" to you means having to go outside and back in through a window to get to the other room.

    Personally, I like defined spaces. Using partial walls, dropped ceilings, peninsulas, etc. Calling a doorway a "sight line" is more than a "bit" of separation.

  • david_cary
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Too few upper cabs. I see why with the South windows. As a general rule (IMO), the kitchen works better if the cabs are not in a window area - view or South.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Is your layout conducive to a finished basement? The rooms would be so much more livable if the bedrooms could have southern exposure as well...we built into the side of a southern facing slope so were able to finish the lower level as well, which we don't heat or cool as it's so temperate. This is the "basement" bedroom...

  • jimandanne_mi
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    "cold north winter wind"--what state are you in? With a S & W exposure, that sunroom is going to be roasting a lot of the year, unless you're in a state without hot summers!

    Anne

  • sitdu
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Amber, I should have mentioned that it is a halfwall open to living room where the upper cabinets end. As for the BBQ issue, either we will be eating outside in nice weather, or having to walk a bit further thru the house is not a hardship.

    I wanted a main floor laundry; more accessible as we age with everything on one floor. Luckily there is a door that will be closed most of the time.

    Annie, I unfortunately cannot view your photo; the internet provider at work has restrictions on the type of format that picture is.

    We will have a finished basement, and that is where we will have a large family room set up; the size of the upstairs living room doesn't need to be overly large.

    It was important to me that the rooms we would living spaces (kitchen/living rooms) have the most sun exposure possible; I love natural light. But, there are some lot restrictions on how wide we can go and I wanted to have a compact shape. The bedrooms are for sleeping; and I like a dark room for that.

    Anne, we are in Western Canada. I plan on having shades on the south windows to pull down on very hot days in the summer.

  • sitdu
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    View of the Kitchen

  • funkycamper
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Where in Canada?

    I live in Washington state and my main living areas all have huge south-facing windows. My kitchen also has an east window. I don't know if my house was built perfectly for passive solar heating intentionally or if it was a lucky accident. Since the house was built in 1949 before people put much thought into it, I'm guessing the latter.

    During the summer, the angle of the sun is much higher in the sky. So we get a lot of light into those south-facing windows but virtually no direct sun due to the wide eaves on the outside. (I think they're 3-feet). The only time we get any direct sun in the warmer months is for a short time in the morning and the evening when things are cooler so it's not a heat problem. Of course, we don't get a lot of real hot weather up north here anyway. But even on the rare days temperatures reach into the upper 80's and low 90's, the eaves keep the house from overheating and it's cooler in the house. We have no AC and I can't imagine we would ever need it.

    During the winter, the angle of the sun is lower. During those cooler months we do get direct sun but our area has a lot of overcast days (on the coast) so the sun is obscured by cloud cover. We still notice some warmth from the sun but it's not real strong. We can lower our thermostat a tad and I do know our heating bills are generally lower than many of our friends even if our house sizes are similar. So we are getting some solar advantage.

    On clear, sunny days in the winter, we often don't even need to have the heat on in our house, even if the temperatures have dropped into the 30's (cold for our area, normal winter temps are in the 40's). We might only need supplemental heat for a short time in the morning and then again in the evening.

    Sunny winter days are the only times I think we should probably have window treatments. The rest of the year, the light is indirect enough where window treatments aren't needed.

    Anyway, this is a long story to illustrate that south-facing windows don't necessarily mean your house will overheat. It really depends on more factors than just the direction. I think sun angle and depth of eaves play a big factor. At least in my experience in my own home.

  • sitdu
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Funkycamper, we are on the prairies in central Saskatchewan; very cold winters and for the most part, very hot summers. We plan on building with ICF as well; this will really help with keeping the house cool in the summer. You make a good point about the proper depth of eaves, and understanding the angle of the summer sun vs. the winter sun. I also don't see the need for AC. As for heating; we will have supplemental heat from the fireplace so the furnace should rarely need to run in the winter.

    View from entry to back of the house.

  • BrianKnight
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Most ICFs dont have the greatest effective R value for very cold climates. I hope you choose a brand or product that has the appropriate amount of R-value.

  • funkycamper
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I was thinking that if you lived in BC, my observations might be helpful. Probably not so much as your weather patterns are so different.

    If you have the land and aren't in a hurry to build, I do think that visiting often to get an idea of the sun/light patterns would be helpful for you. I think elevation makes a difference as well. We now live on a hill with total exposure to the east and south. We are shielded from the north as the road behind us is about 20' above the elevation of our home; we have an embankment and plantings with a tall hedge at the top. To the west, the home we also have about a 20' rise to the property owned by the neighbors with a more gentle slope up. Beyond the neighbor's property, the hill continues up to the west probably rising about another 100 feet or so.

    I think the only thing I don't like about our lot is the hill to our west blocks the setting sun so we lose direct sun a bit earlier than I'd like. We still get the light but I'd sure like the warmth of direct sun to stay around longer in the evenings.

    Our former home as less than a half-mile away, just a couple hundred feet from the foot of the hill we now live on. Down on what we call "The Flats". The way light hit our home was quite different than the way it hits us now. Angles were different and the houses were closer in our former home so this made a big difference in how the light worked there.

    Anyway, another long little personal ditty so illustrate how important it is to really know how the sun hits your property at different times of year and what kind of impact any nearby homes, trees, hills, etc., have so you can make the proper decisions.

    Best wishes.