Quote:
Originally Posted by freeztar
What is your house's foundation like? Most newer houses are built on top of concrete slabs. Is your house one of the older designs that has direct access to the ground beneath it?
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The majority of the house is on a slab, but there is just one area that is a crawl space and has access to actual dirt. I'm guessing the builder figured that that part of the ground was not going to have direct contact with the room above so why bother. The house was built in the 1980's though, so not that much older.
Quote:
Originally Posted by freeztar
I like moontan's thoughts on this. I'd like to add that I'm currently renting a split level home where the majority of the windows have SE exposure. Since the cold is finally gone for good (until the fall), I shut off the heat and fans and opened up almost all the windows. The house stays very comfortable with no energy use despite temperatures above 90 degrees F outside. So, when I was reading your first post, I began to contemplate the reasons why my situation is so different from your own. It's really only one reason I think...shade. The same shade that inhibits me from playing with my fresnel lenses encapsulates the house a large portion of the day.
If you plan to stay there a long time, it would be wise to plant some trees to strategically block that harsh southern exposure. Of course, this may mean higher heating bills in the winter. Those pesky trade-offs.  |
Well if you plant deciduous trees in front of the house you won't have the winter problems because there are no leaves in the winter months. That being said... we already have two huge oak trees that block as much of the sun as possible. The only way I could get another large tree in there would be to take up the driveway and plant there.
