Windows and porches

[Sarah]

I have always been interested in passive solar and cooling as old Southern homes use to have. Windows that you can open at the bottom and the top. The bottom will draw in the cooler air, and the upper would allow the hot air to leave and causing a thermal breeze within the home.

The porches, that are the right size to block the summer sun, but allow the lower winter sunlight in.

Most importantly - trees with real leaves. Oaks, Pecan, Hickory, etc. So shade in the summer and light in the winter. Similar to the photo below.

 

[chloe writes]

Double-hung windows, deep porches, and leafy trees are a smart way to keep things comfortable without relying too much on machines. Are you starting fresh with a build, or working with something already in place? If it's a new setup, it helps to think about where the windows face so the breeze and sunlight work in your favor. Also, have you figured out how far the roof sticks out or which way the porch faces?

 

[Tiny_jane]

Modern homebuilders have largely abandoned passive solar and natural cooling, chasing aesthetics and profit over function. Ignoring these proven designs forces homeowners into expensive HVAC dependence, all while claiming to build energy-efficient houses.

 

[eDJ_]

As a kid I had family in Texas and Arizona that we would visit. One of the things I saw a lot of were houses with porches around three and sometimes all four sides of the house. Thus you could move around on those porches in order to be out of the sun. The roof of the house hung out a bit beyond those porches too so that there was always shade from the sun and cover from rain. Some of the trees were of the deciduous type (shed their leaves during the winter) so there would be the warmth of the sun in the cold months.

As for windows in Texas they seemed to use the standard window system, but in Arizona they had long double hung windows that went from just above the floor almost to the ceiling. Thus they provided fantastic ventilation inside the home when it was hot.

In Texas they used those water evaporation things that looked like heat pumps. (called swamp coolers)
These basically had a felt drum that was turned by a motor as the drum dipped into a reservoir filled with water supplied by plumbing or just a garden hose hooked up to a hose bib. A blower fan was built in to force cooling air into the house. It was hot and dry there so the swamp coolers worked well and felt like air conditioning.

Where I live in southern Ohio, a screened in porch is a luxury. There are many insects especially mosquitoes that can make it nearly impossible to enjoy the cool evening air. Ceiling fans aren't uncommon either as the draft of air makes it difficult for the flying insects to be annoying.

Citronella candles made in small metal buckets often burn at the edges of the porch so that the ceiling fan can stir the air full of their vapors and repel the bugs. But many of the home owners will have the porch screened in as soon as they can afford that luxury. Then having a portable TV, Radio, to enjoy bug free begins to establish the luxury of outdoor evening living at dusk, By it is time to turn in for the night the interior of the house has cooled down enough to make falling asleep much easier.