Location, Location, Location

You've heard it before: location, location, location. And when you're building a sustainable home, the way your house is placed on your lot does indeed matter. It's essential to optimize natural light and enable heating and cooling to take place more efficiently.

Facing The House South
With the LEED program, the house faces directly south. You can dramatically change your heating and cooling efficiency at home with the way a house is placed on the lot. Traditionally, people place a house facing the street but, by facing a home to the south, you take advantage of both the morning and afternoon sunlight.

Capture The Natural Light
A house is more efficient when you capture the natural light, the natural winds, natural breezes to help heat and cool the home. And, with the sun in the morning AND in the afternoon, you'll have more natural light coming into the home - a definite advantage to help avoid the winter blues.

Solar Heat Gain In Winter
By facing the home south, you'll take advantage of the passive solar heat gain during the winter. During the wintertime an energy-efficient house will heat just with the sun providing the house has over 70% of its windows on the south side of the home which this sustainable sited house has.

Shade In The Summer
Most of the trees on this sustainable home property are leaf trees. In the summer, the leaves will shade the house to keep it cooler. In the autumn, the leaves will fall - and you'll have the sunlight during the winter to keep the house warmer.