Saturday, February 14, 2009

North and South Exposure

Our recent thaw and rain removed much of our accumulated snow earlier this week. We got an early view of the phenomenon I usually notice in early spring: snow disappears from lawns with a south exposure (those on the north side of an east-west street) while it remains much longer on lawns facing north and thus receiving little or no direct sun while the sun is still relatively low in the sky. This is Woodley Street, facing west.
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2 comments:

Mary S. said...

Interesting post. Should I ever build a house again (unlikely, but possible) the orientation of the house is going to be one of the first things I think about. In this climate, putting maximum windows to the south makes for a much more pleasant home in winter and a cooler home in summer.

Unknown said...

I agree. I certainly remember our west-facing windows at Sixth St. as causing a lot of excess heat in the summer. The newer low-E glass coatings on high-quality windows can do quite a bit to manage the sun these days, allowing in rays that come in at a lower angle, as they do in winter, and deflecting them when they come at a higher angle, as they do in the summer.