Hi guys - my drafts man is keen on south facing clerestory windows saying council are likely to overlook their own wall height restraints (3 metres in Adelaide Hills Facing Zone) if it is to allow for southern light!
What do people think of this - with no direct sun I am not sure how beneficial this will be for lighting a room?
South facing clerestory windows
(9 posts) (6 voices)-
Dexter
MemberPosted Tuesday 6 Sep 2016 @ 11:35:48 am from IP # -
If you simply want to light a room, southern light is fine. Artists are said to prefer it.
The benefit of solar heat gain by direct sunlight through north-facing windows brings disadvantages. Direct sunlight is hard on fabrics, books, and woodwork. It brings glare that can be tiring, making a person move around to avoid it. The warmth can make you drowsy.
Decide what you want.
Posted Tuesday 6 Sep 2016 @ 1:48:34 pm from IP # -
scott drew
MemberIt should really depend on what you want to achieve.
If you think about it city buildings have windows facing in all directions. I think some light is better than none, especially if it stops people turning on an electric light during daylight hours.
Posted Tuesday 6 Sep 2016 @ 10:17:42 pm from IP # -
d.darroch
MemberShould be ok for lighting purposes. Yes, you get more light through a northern window, but I'd usually take a southern aspect over a western aspect (due to heat gain from western windows in summer).
But there's more to windows than just lighting. They can have a significant effect on the thermal properties of a house.
As hot air rises, clerestory windows are good at purging the house of heat in summer. Even when there's no wind, the stack effect will draw cool air through the house, while warm air escapes through the clerestory windows. But the principle of hot air rising can have a very negative effect in winter. Windows are very poor insulators (even double glazed windows), so windows up near the ceiling, where the air is warmest, will leak a lot of heat in winter. Clerestories are also unlikely to be covered by thermal blinds or curtains, to limit this heat loss. North facing clerestory windows may overcome these losses with solar heat gain from northern sunlight. But this won't happen for southern clerestories. So personally, for any climate that requires significant winter heating I wouldn't be installing south facing clerestory windows.
Posted Tuesday 6 Sep 2016 @ 11:18:53 pm from IP # -
Dexter
Memberhi guys to paint a bigger picture - both rooms in question already have northern windows 2.4 metres in height - one is a spare living room aprox 5 metres deep and north facing. It will be partially blocked from afternoon winter sun due to an internal corner with a 3 metre wall blocking light from the west (refer to my super crude drawing below)
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|_______________The other room is aprox 7 metres in depth with the Clerestory windows either on the southern external wall or about 2 metres in creating an over hang in the kitchen. This room wont have any shadowing of winter sun from the north
Based on this do you see any benefit in adding southern light to the room? (by the way it is intended for these windows to be fixed so no benefit in purging summer heat)
Posted Wednesday 7 Sep 2016 @ 10:58:01 am from IP # -
Dexter
MemberDexter said:
my crude diagram did not work as the clever computer took out the spaces at the beginning of the line - lets try again, just pretend the full stops aren't there!!
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.................Posted Wednesday 7 Sep 2016 @ 11:01:59 am from IP # -
Bushwalker
MemberDexter said:
Based on this do you see any benefit in adding southern light to the room? (by the way it is intended for these windows to be fixed so no benefit in purging summer heat)If you have more than enough shaded northern facing windows, (sounds like you do), then I can see no reason to add southern facing clerestory windows at all. Makes no sense at all.
Does the designer get a dollar bonus from the window supplier per window or something?
Posted Wednesday 7 Sep 2016 @ 10:33:07 pm from IP # -
Frewvk
MemberOur old house had an original entryway on the south bricked up with glass bricks. This provided substantially more light than i would have expected. Lovely diffuse light summer through winter without any glare.
I dont endorse the thermal properties of those old first generation glass bricks though!!!
Depends on how your thermal and light situation goes but our place had nice light from the south (other disadvantages aside)Posted Thursday 8 Sep 2016 @ 4:42:11 am from IP #
