Which one is the better direction for the house with respect to the sun

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Tribune

New member
Hello All,

We are facing a dilemma on choosing one of the Mendocino houses in Stonegate, Irvine.

I am including the images for our two choices as well as the plan of the house in the end of my message.

House A is exactly mapped as in the plan picture. There are windows on the second floor facing SE, S and SW and I think most of the second floor would be bright. The bad thing is that Neither the master bedroom nor the Great/Living room receive much sunlight throughout the day.

House B has a mirrored plan. I hope that Master and Great/Living room facing S would give us some light, but I am worried that it may be blocked by the neighboring house.

Can you share your insights ? If there is somebody who is currently living in Mendocino maybe they can comment on how much free sky-view the california/conservatory room gets considering their neighbors and walls.

Thank you very much in advance,

(Just added two more pictures for more clarification, thanks for all the replies so far)


Layout of the house
1zyzojn.jpg


Map of the house
294591k.jpg


House A
nzgk21.jpg


House B
25g41zd.jpg
 
Personally I like the morning sun in my master bedroom, a natural way of waking up.  So plan A for me.  Your garage will get a beating with the SW sun, so hopefully it's not a dark color that fades easily or else you'll get a HOA letter to repaint every year.  Same goes with any south facing shutters.  Also Bed 4 will be like a sauna.  But who cares, I want to wake up good :)
 
A will be hot and B will be cool. :)

Sun will always shines on the front of A, it feel bright and energetic.  Kind of like feng shui prefer south facing homes, because sun always shine on front of them. 

B will be better for the great room, but it might be under the shadow of other homes.  The front of the home will feel dark and shady, the plant will not get too much sunlight.

I prefer A even it mean less sunny great room.

 
Feng shui direction is cyclical.  It used be good to have south facing house, I was told it's now northeast.  Also, besides Feng Shui, you may want to visit the site to see and feel the location.  They usually place the large transformer at the side of the corner house.  It emits low frequency noise and it can be really disturbing for sensitive people.  Personally, if only A or B is available, I would choose B. But I would check for the transformer first. :)
 
Tyler Durden said:
unless you are very sensitive to sunlight, you should always choose the option that gives you the most light.


Have you ever heard of someone coming into a room during an open house or model and saying "its too bright in here"?  You typically hear the opposite: "its like a cave in here... i wish there was more light".


When there is more light, you can also do more with different hues of paint.  If you are in a dark room already, painting the walls a dark shade, brings them in and makes the room feel even smaller.  With a bright room, you can employ the same colors to a slightly less dramatic effect.


Other things to consider - if you have a lot of light in your home, you can save on running lights during the day.  We have a southern exposure and never run lamps during the day.  You also get the benefit of extra heat in the winter... but will be hotter in the summer.


If you are planning solar anytime soon - they want either south facing or west facing and as a last resort - east facing.  They do not recommend mounting on a north facing roof.


As far as your yard - you want a western or southern exposure for the most ideal growing conditions.  Those directions get the most hrs of sunlight / day.


Good luck.
Click to expand...

With most of the new homes, lighting is not going to be an issue.  They have tons of windows and light.  What will matter is morning vs afternoon sun.  If you get afternoon sun where there are lots of windows, it will get super hot. 
 
Irvinecommuter said:
If you get afternoon sun where there are lots of windows, it will get super hot.
Click to expand...
With new low-e or whatever they are called windows it's not that bad as it was in the past. Shutters are also an option.
 
skiwhistler said:
Irvinecommuter said:
If you get afternoon sun where there are lots of windows, it will get super hot.
Click to expand...
With new low-e or whatever they are called windows it's not that bad as it was in the past. Shutters are also an option.
Click to expand...

Yeah...but still heats up the house.  You would have to get blackout curtains to really see an effect.

Also...with the new windows they install...you can't tint.  Voids the warranty.
 
I prefer B.

Regardless of where my master bedroom is, if I had to choose east/west exposure, I like it when the sun rises facing my home and the sun sets in my backyard (which would be great if you had a view).

If you don't have a view, I prefer north/south so you get good sun exposure in the front and back.

One of my homes had a similar exposure where it was a bit off the east/west axis and it caused problems with my garage door. At around 8 in the morning when the sun was just over the horizon at an angle into my open garage, it would shine into the light sensor and I couldn't close the door. I had to make a small cardboard shade and put it on top of the sensor to fix that. My wife never noticed it because when she backed out, her car would block the sun that would hit the sensor.
 
skiwhistler said:
Irvinecommuter said:
Also...with the new windows they install...you can't tint.  Voids the warranty.
Click to expand...
Low-e glass is not tinting. It is coating on the glass which is applied at the factory.
Click to expand...

Yeah...sorry if I wasn't clear.  I was just talking about the windows that the builders install now.  I don't think I would want to replace all my windows just after I move in.
 
Irvinecommuter said:
Yeah...sorry if I wasn't clear.  I was just talking about the windows that the builders install now.  I don't think I would want to replace all my windows just after I move in.
Click to expand...
Pretty much every new construction in Irvine (at least SFR) is low-e glass. Not sure if this is a code requirement, but it sounds silly to put energy efficient HVAC, bulbs, etc. and not make an effort to reduce heating/cooling loss across window surface.
 
Tyler Durden said:
unless you are very sensitive to sunlight, you should always choose the option that gives you the most light.


Have you ever heard of someone coming into a room during an open house or model and saying "its too bright in here"?  You typically hear the opposite: "its like a cave in here... i wish there was more light".


When there is more light, you can also do more with different hues of paint.  If you are in a dark room already, painting the walls a dark shade, brings them in and makes the room feel even smaller.  With a bright room, you can employ the same colors to a slightly less dramatic effect.


Other things to consider - if you have a lot of light in your home, you can save on running lights during the day.  We have a southern exposure and never run lamps during the day.  You also get the benefit of extra heat in the winter... but will be hotter in the summer.


If you are planning solar anytime soon - they want either south facing or west facing and as a last resort - east facing.  They do not recommend mounting on a north facing roof.


As far as your yard - you want a western or southern exposure for the most ideal growing conditions.  Those directions get the most hrs of sunlight / day.


Good luck.
Click to expand...

I agree.  South west facing windows get the most light.  Our home faces SW and we love it.  It's always bright.
 
In order to get reasonable light (and heat in the winter), south facing house would be your #1 choice.
However, It seems there are not many direct south facing homes in Southern California but there are many south-east or south-west facing choices.

If you like to get enough sunlight in the morning, choose south-east.
If you don't want to be woken up by early sunlight or prefer to get sunlight in the afternoon, choose south-west.
This should be purely personal preference but I prefer south-east over south-west in SoCal because south-west facing seems to be a little hot in the summer.

I always avoid direct west facing and any north facing homes.
Direct west facing homes in Socal would make your house too hot and sun will shine all the way in and covers almost the whole living room. You'd be like baked in an oven everyday. You will need good window treatments. :)

Any north facing homes, you won't get enough sunlight and your home will be cold in the winter. (If you hate overall sunshine, it should be OK. :))

In Irvine, my previous home was south-east facing and I enjoyed sunshine and my home was always bright and enjoyable.
Now I'm temporarily living in a north-west facing home (more north side), I have to say it's bad. I hardly get sunshine at home and it's cold in the winter. :( 
I miss south-east facing home and look forward to moving out soon.

In your specific case, south-west facing will be a better choice.
 
I picked an orientation that gets lots of bright light during the day into the great room and enjoy it but one thing you might want to consider is your TV placement and how the sunlight might affect glare.  If you only watch TV during the evening you wont care but if daytime TV on the weekends is a big deal for you then its worth considering.
 
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