The Essentials of Successfully Incorporating Passive Solar in Your Custom Home Design

Incorporating passive solar into your custom built home is as just important as your floor plan or any item on your wish list. In fact, passive solar is one of the major benefits of building a custom built home.

When building a standard home it is very difficult to optimize the advantages one site would present over another. Building a new home and not taking advantage of the northern aspect is a usually a disaster and results in coming home to a dark cold home on a sunny winter’s day.

Many designers think that a 3 metre veranda facing the north is capitalising a northern aspect but this is very much not the case as the sun must touch the glass. This is not difficult and carefully placed eaves can be a very good start to achieving your passive solar home.

This is not new technology and this information has been available to us for several hundred years. Then why do I see so many mainstream builders claiming that they’re Custom Builders, fail to follow these basic rules of thumb? I think partly it’s the stigma attached that somehow the home design will suffer as result. Our opinion at Maughan Building Company is that your home will suffer as a result of not including this one critical element in your next design.

As a Perth custom home builder, I’m quite passionate about what we do. Architecture and getting the most of what each site can offer is my forte and I won’t settle for anything less than perfect. Every site is usually very different; two pieces of land may sit side by side, yet one can have considerable differences. For example, one can be on a corner so the garage door doesn’t dominate the front elevation or take advantage of a northern aspect more successfully. This is why I invite people to let us come and have a look at their next purchase prior to securing it so I can highlight the pros and cons that every site presents.

Another subtle feature in a home can be a carefully placed pool or stunning courtyard. A poor design will incorporate these where they fit, not taking into consideration the orientation and actually how functional they will be or how often they will been used. Is this something you are prepared to risk with your next building project? Engage professionals and you will only get the best results by doing so. Last but not least, before engaging anyone get references and ring them. Ask to have a look at their finished projects to ensure they are indeed outstanding before settling on a builder to create your next custom built home which fully utilises passive solar design.