{"id":4813,"date":"2023-09-21T22:51:46","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T22:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/?p=4813"},"modified":"2023-09-05T22:56:11","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T22:56:11","slug":"net-zero-development-which-way-to-run-the-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/blog\/net-zero-development-which-way-to-run-the-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"Net zero development: Which way to run the streets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Written by: Jake Evans<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which way do you run the streets to maximize solar exposure for dense Net Zero\u00a0development?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/powerhouse-designs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Fullenwider-Street-View.jpg\" alt=\"A street view of a row of colorful houses. The center blue house is a Net Zero house designed by Powerhouse Designs and built by TC Legend Homes.\" class=\"wp-image-254294\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Common wisdom states that the optimal streets run east west, which makes sense if you\u2019re the house on the north side of the street, because there\u2019s nothing shading your house, garden or solar panels. However, living on the south side of the street, you suffer from north facing gardens and probably some shading unless the lots are 5000sf or&nbsp;greater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Critically, 10 dwelling units (du) per acre is the density with enough inhabitants to support a bus service (*1), a key part of the sustainable urbanist vision for transit, pedestrian &amp; bike use, rather than private cars. An acre is&nbsp;43500sf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My conclusion is that the common wisdom is wrong for dense, Net Zero development, that the streets should run&nbsp;north-south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Net-Zero house has most of the windows on the south side of the house because south facing windows can be effectively shaded from summertime overheating, and can harvest wintertime solar&nbsp;energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because all the windows are on the south walls, we can\u2019t have another 2-story house immediately to the south as shown in \u2018East-West 3700\u2019 below, or the valuable direct wintertime sunlight will be prevented from entering &amp; you\u2019ll have a house that is gloomy all&nbsp;winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sure, if the lots are big, we can keep the southern house away, as shown in \u2018East-West 4500\u2019 below, but then we end up with less than 10 du\/ acre (du\/a) and there\u2019s no bus &amp; everyone\u2019s driving&nbsp;cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u2018North-South 3800\u2019 drawing below shows a 1-story neighbor garage to the south, avoiding shade. Bingo! That\u2019s a 3800sf lot, and offers 11.34 du\/a. Additionally the frontage length is reduced which lowers roadway &amp; utility development&nbsp;costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/powerhouse-designs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Street-Orientation-Option-1-North-South-3800-1-663x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Street Orientation Option 1 North-South 3800. A drawing showing a block of houses on streets oriented north to south and situated on their lots with garages on the north side and the long side of the house on the north and south side, allowing solar gain on the south side while not being blocked by the roofline of the neighboring house. Text says &quot;2000 sf house with dbl garage. 3835 sf lot. 59' frontage \/ du = 11.34, du\/a = density supports bus OK. Winter light = 100%. Equal solar exposure for all houses.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-254296\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/powerhouse-designs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Street-Orientation-Option-2-East-West-3700-663x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Street Orientation Option 2 East-West 3700. A drawing showing a block of houses on streets oriented east to west and situated on their lots with garages to one side of the house and the long side of the house on the north and south side. The two houses to the north of the block have garages on the west side and the southern two houses have garages on the east side mimicking the layout. The orientation allows solar gain on the south side but the diagram shows that 40% of the northern houses will be blocked by the roofline of the neighboring southern house. Text says &quot;2000 sf house with dbl garage. 3700 sf lot. 74' frontage \/ du = 11.76, du\/a = density supports bus OK. Winter light = 60% @ northern houses.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-254297\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/powerhouse-designs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Street-Orientation-Option-3-East-West-4500-663x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Street Orientation Option 3 East-West 4500. A drawing showing a block of houses on streets oriented east to west and situated on their lots with garages to one side of the house and the long side of the house on the north and south side. The two houses to the north of the block have garages on the west side and the southern two houses have garages on the east side mimicking the layout. The orientation allows solar gain on the south side while not being blocked by the roofline of the neighboring southern house. However the houses are visibly farther apart. Text says &quot;2000 sf house with dbl garage. 4505 sf lot. 74' frontage \/ du = 9.66, du\/a = density ~ supports bus OK. Winter light = 100%.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-254298\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>(*1) Transit modes related to residential density (Boris Pushkarev &amp; Jeffry M&nbsp;Zupan)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by: Jake Evans Which way do you run the streets to maximize solar exposure for dense Net Zero\u00a0development? Common wisdom states that the optimal streets run east west, which makes sense if you\u2019re the house on the north side of the street, because there\u2019s nothing shading your house, garden or solar panels. However, living [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,102,25,29,112,104,13],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4815,"href":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4813\/revisions\/4815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tclegendhomes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}