https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation

How wide is your block? Ideally you would try to have some Northerly light in your living areas and cluster bedrooms on Southern and Eastern sides.

It‘s 14x32m. Unfortunately, this is a cookie cutter plan from a mass builder. Can’t really do any changes apart from flipping the garage. What do you suggest with the positioning of bedrooms and living/kitchen areas? 🤔

I am leaning more towards having the bedrooms on the eastern side. But worried that the kitchen, family and dining area would be too hot in the summer! What should be the best layout in terms of energy saving?

Do you think the pantry will be too hot to store food in if it is facing west? There are no windows in the pantry.

For the few days of the year, that Melbourne gets extreme hot weather, I don't think it will be an issue. It's a positive that there is no window in the pantry.

Does your house have eaves? This would make a difference to the sun coming onto the walls. Your plan doesn't show any.
With the length of your home facing east and west, building a home with eaves would, for me, be essential.

You could install a roof to fence shade cloth system. This could be installed the full length of the home, if required.

I think the sides of the house don’t have eaves. do you think double glazing the big windows in the living areas would help in controlling the glare and heat? Have you had any experience with evaporative cooling? Do you think it’s worth the investment? Thank you so much!

You need to keep the sun from getting to the windows in the first place. So a shade system would work. Up to you with budget regarding double glazing.
Evaporative systems work well. However, they are best in dry heat. They do not work at their best, on humid days, as they just add more moisture to the air. You also have to keep a window in the bedrooms about 100mm open when running the system, and the doors to outside open at least 100mm also. So if you are not in a secure area, or are not okay with having your windows ajar, then maybe it is not for you.
A ducted reverse cycle airconditioning works with all windows closed, and is better in humidity. But more expensive.
I would be as equally concerned about how you are going to heat the home.

Layout perfect as is shown. Just add a verandah down the west side. 600-1m depending on ht.

Kate, Would you prefer the bedrooms to be on the west side?

Dreamer, would you consider West Melbourne dry or humid? thank you

No, bedrooms should be on cooler side when going to bed.

Hi Kate, so you suggest to flip the design and have the bedrooms on the east, living areas and kitchen on the west? Thanks

The plan as shown is north at the bottom.

The ideal situation is for the bedrooms to be on the east side.
Therefore your plan needs to be flipped!!!

Hu , consult a air conditioner company in west Melbourne. They would be able to give you recommendations.
At the moment I would say that west Melbourne, is wet and cold.

Another question, if there is a 1-storey house in the west side of my property, do you think that would help to keep the sun from directly getting to my windows?

Also, may I know the heating and cooling system that you have at home? Would you recommend it?

Thank you very much for all your help! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

Yes with north to front I would flip. Sorry for my confusion.
I’m in melb and love my evap A/c. Like having windows and doors open and on the very odd humid day you can still run the fan which is in every room. Much cheaper to run than refrigerated ac,
.

I agree with Kate. I have had both, and I prefer the Evap system.

"Unfortunately, this is a cookie cutter plan from a mass builder. Can’t really do any changes apart from flipping the garage .... What should be the best layout in terms of energy saving?"

The floorplan isn't too bad and could have worked in a solar passive way with north on the long side and maximising the windows on that side, but with north to the front the only room which benefits from the valuable northern orientation is the front living room. All the other rooms will need thought about how you can make them work for you and your budget. Other replies have given you things to think about. Which rooms would you prefer with morning sun? Which rooms can you close up to protect from afternoon heat? Which rooms do you want afternoon heat in winter? Which windows can you plant something large and shady in front or which rooms can you install external shutters on (because as dreamer said, in summer you need to stop the sun reaching the windows in the first place)? And so on. Can you in fact flip the design? Sometimes the position of the driveway or location of services in the nature strip dictate which side the garage must be on.

"Do you think the pantry will be too hot to store food in if it is facing west? There are no windows in the pantry."

Surely the external walls will have insulation? And you can plant something in front for additional cooling shade.

Our last house was oriented like this as we wanted to face our beautiful view. We eventually put outdoor blinds on the windows and this made a huge difference to the temperature inside. I hear tinted windows help too. Could you have smaller or higher windows in the bedrooms? Also if the bedrooms are on the east, they will be quite hot in the morning.

Macyjean, yes, we will be flipping the plan. The garage, kitchen, dining and family living will be on the west side. Bedrooms all facing east. What do

you think of this? Thank you

Hi nblan25, are your bedrooms on the west side of the house?

Hu, you seem very concerned about two to three months of the year with heat. What about the other 9 months of cold to moderate temperatures? What temperature do you class as being hot?

So it looks like you could easily put one of those roll-up shade screens on the alfresco to keep the sun off the bedroom window. I've lived in two houses with a west-facing bedroom and in the second one there was external shading which helped a lot.

If you extend the roofline of the garage that creates a covered porch over the laundry door.

Then you need to think about the windows in the family and meals areas, which I presume are full-length? The plan doesn't show a window in the kitchen?

Hi dreamer, it’s because my bedroom right now is on the west side. i don’t have a/c and it is like hell when the temperature comes to 34 and above (which i felt we had at least twice a week last summer?). Impossible to sleep at night. I am also VERY sensitive to the heat and glare of the setting sun. It triggers my migraine. With that being said, is it actually a good idea to have the living areas to the west? 😅 please be patient with me. i‘m just so confused!

The windows in the meals and dining areas are full length. No windows in the kitchen.

I guess stick to flipping the original plan? Garage, living, kitchen and meals area on the west. Bedrooms on the east. Maybe just invest in good shutters/blockers on the full length windows in the meals and family areas. Is this a good plan?

Macyjean, if you were to decide, where would you rather have your bedrooms? would you flip this plan?

Do you think the afternoon sun will still come through the master’s Sliding door? I was thinking the alfresco roof would be able to block the sun. But I may be wrong.

The windows are full length in the family and meals areas.

We had one bedroom on the east and one on the west. The eastern bed was definitely cooler but it did get very warm in there on summer mornings. On the plus side it is nice and warm on winter mornings making it easier to get up and dressed. We also had living areas on the west. Living areas on the west was actually kind of nice in the winter as it warmed the house in the afternoon. The setting sun was very bright and showed up all the dust in the house. In the summer we were putting the ac on at around 12-2 pm depending on the day. We are in Tamworth which has hot summers, fewer cool summer days than Melbourne. I think in your plan you have only a couple of smaller windows on the living areas and this will help you. We had a 4.2m glass sliding stacker door. We eventually put a deck which extended out 4m and this put off the heat until around 3-4pm.

i would have the bedrooms east and living areas west but remove the windows on the west side of the family room and the master bedroom, plan for a Skylight over the kitchen, adjustable external blinds for the playroom and dining area and external roller blinds for the other windows (all the blinds could be added later as needed?)...without a western window your bedroom should be much cooler and hopefully your new home will be well insulated and includes ceiling fans and/or reverse cycle AC....you asked if the neighbours' homes will help shade your house and in winter you will hope they don't but any eave or verandah on east and west needs to be huge to create any worthwhile shade (that's why the western window in your bedroom won't be shaded from late afternoon sun and needs to be removed) the best solution is to have the adjustable blinds directly outside the windows and for what you called a "cookie cutter plan" the house feels quite spacious and comfortable and the western courtyard is an ideal utility area and the backyard much bigger than many ..enjoy your new home

"Macyjean, if you were to decide, where would you rather have your bedrooms? would you flip this plan?"

People's priorities are different so it's difficult for me to put myself in the mindset of that type of block in the first place and what I might do with it won't necessarily help you. I think everyone has given you some useful things to think about and then you need to decide which of them are relevant and important to you.

"Do you think the afternoon sun will still come through the master’s Sliding door? I was thinking the alfresco roof would be able to block the sun. But I may be wrong."

The sun won'r reach the window as early in the afternoon. We have a similar west facing window and we thought the wide roof over it would solve the problem there but it still gets late afternoon sun, which is lovely in winter but horrible in summer.

We do not have a neighbouring house close to it though so it might depend on how close your neighbouring house is. It might be that there is not very much time between when the sun comes in under your roof and when it goes behind the neighbouring house.

It also depends on what you plan to do with the garden. Deciduous trees in front of west facing windows can provide winter light and summer shade. But if you don't like raking autumn leaves or you want a lawn then that solution won't suit you.

Something else to think about is what is on the other side of the fence. You might not want your bedrooms right next to where neighbours have their outdoor entertaining area.

This is a really useful government website for making your home environmentally sustainable.

https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design

This page explains how orientation works and some of the things you can do on various sides.

https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation

"shutters/blockers"

What sort do you mean? Beware of anything that goes on the inside of the window and claims to block heat. Obviously some materials and styles work better than others, but the most effective way to stop heat inside the window is to stop the sun reaching the window.

You could install external roller shutters on every window. This could be done after home is built.

@macyjean, ’anything that goes on the inside of the window and claims to block heat’, do you mean like this?

Thank you.

Something on the outside of the window stops the sun shining on the glass and creating heat behind the glass.

Something on the inside of the window reduces the heat coming further into the room.

In both cases what that 'something' is makes a difference as to how well it works. So the plantation shutters in your picture are thicker therefore more effective than lightweight curtains.

But they are not as effective as something on the outside of the window which stops the sun from reaching the glass in the first place.

We have 'sun blockout' curtains and we can feel the warmth coming around the edges on hot days. The air inside the glass has been heated by the sun.

We were on the east side of Melbourne in a brand new house, cookie cutter, eastern bedrooms were lovely but the west/south facing living was awful. Way to hot in summer and the single story house in winter blocked most of the lower sun. I’d highly recommend finding a draftsman/architect that has done passive solar/passive house builds. It’ll make all the difference in the long run in regards to comfort and running prices. Our heating was gas in winter bills were well over 300 every 2 months plus electric, in summer the elec was about 200 a month with evap. Good luck with it all it’s a hard orientation

@Kate oh no! Now I’m thinking we should have done more research before buying the land! Well, there’s no turning back now. Our living, kitchen and dining areas will definitely be on the west side. In terms of upgrades offered by mass builders, what insulation features are worth the investment to help with the overall heating/cooling of the house? thank you

6 star building covers most. I will need to add heavy drapes. But really it is how you stop the summer sun hitting the glass is the big difference. Minimise glass to west, highlight windows, but really it is outside shading. Canopy trees, eaves, sun blinds, covered pergola or pergola with say a grape vine or even shade cloth

You can always make it work, no point dwelling on the past, just learn from others :) If you haven’t signed for the house you could make the West side all the living things and then garage and beds on the east. Windows focused on the north and south and higher windows along the west. Depends on climate as well. Yourhome can give you climate specific info. Kate is right the more you can stop the sun hitting your house the cooler it’ll be in the summer. High insulation ratings and higher levels of glazing will help keep the inside how you want it without it leaking with the outside temps. Eaves or verandah are essential, we “saved” 4K not having them but boy did we pay for it! Also you have to consider things like how long you will be there as to how much money you put into it in regards to design. Things like high r values in insulation are relatively cheap to upgrade and make a big difference but an architect can be quite a few k.
Do some looking around, talk to a lot of builders and research before you choose (assuming you haven’t) If you have looking into passive solar and incorporate as many things as you can into it because it will still help make things more comfortable and less expensive:)

I would just like to thank everyone who has commented and offered valuable opinions on this thread. You all have been truly helpful. What a wonderful online community, thank you all very much. :)

"Now I’m thinking we should have done more research before buying the land!"

Can I ask if the block was advertised as 'north facing'?

Some ads call blocks 'north facing' if the street is to the north which I have been told is technically correct.

Some ads make 'north facing' a real selling point which can be misleading to purchasers seeking energy efficiency.

For energy efficiency the widest length of the block needs to face north so the most windows can face north. It is rare for the street frontage to also be the widest part of the block. Its access to the benefits of the northern orientation is further limited by the garage. So there is often no particular advantage to a 'north facing' block, especially for energy efficiency. (Btw that's in the southern hemisphere, in the northern hemisphere those windows need to be on the south side.)

"what insulation features are worth the investment to help with the overall heating/cooling of the house?"

Concrete slab with insulated edges (we have a concrete slab but when our house was built no-one was doing insulated edges and I can feel the cold through the carpet near the southern edge).

Double glazing (some houses are being built with triple glazing, just so you know that's available, but whether it's worth it in your case I can't say).

Wall and ceiling insulation as recommended for the climate zone (I've heard in cold climates it's not a bad idea to go beyond what's recommended if you can afford to upgrade).

External shade in summer (being careful to plan so that you do not miss out on sunshine in winter).

Those Your Home links explain much more.