The orientation of a property is a key factor when buying, selling, building, or renovating a home. Among other elements such as the land, infrastructure, and urban planning regulations, the cardinal direction a building's facade faces and its location are among the most important from an architectural and quality-of-life perspective.
Many people wonder what the best orientation of a house is when they are going to buy a house (or do any other type of operation with it, such as renovating it) in order to make decisions, put a price on the property or, simply, know what expense they will have in air conditioning.
From the point of view of what factors an appraiser takes into account to calculate the value of a home, the orientation is key: depending on the placement of the facade, the value will be higher or lower.
Defining the orientation of a house
Orientation refers to the position of a house in relation to the sun. Depending on which way the house's facade faces (north, south, east, or west) and whether it is in the northern or southern hemisphere, the amount of natural light it receives, energy savings, and other factors will change.
Solar exposure refers to the amount of sunlight a building receives. This concept, derived from bioclimatic architecture, is used to study the amount of natural light and radiation a building will receive based on solar geometry and its location, and to design accordingly.
Importance of the orientation of a house
Finding the optimal orientation for a home is important for energy reasons (to spend more or less on lighting or air conditioning), but also for comfort and quality of life.
When choosing a house to live in, it is highly recommended to consider its orientation to calculate how much we can spend on air conditioning, heating or electricity per year.
But it is also essential to know the orientation of the property and its sun exposure if we are going to have the expense of appraising the property to apply for a mortgage, sell it or divide an inheritance; since the price can vary by up to 20% depending on whether the house faces east or north.
Three ways to calculate it
First, to calculate the orientation of a house, it is necessary to understand the sun's position relative to the earth: the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Furthermore, the sun's angle is towards the south.
Due to the Earth's rotation on its axis, in the southern hemisphere in winter the sun shines at a more oblique and horizontal angle, while in summer it is the opposite: the sun shines at a more vertical angle
The sun's rays hit south-facing facades all day long; east-facing facades receive light in the morning; west-facing facades in the afternoon; and north-facing facades do not receive direct sunlight.
Once we know how the sun behaves with respect to the four cardinal points and the seasons, we can know which cardinal point the house is oriented towards.
Obtain the house plans
The most accurate way to determine the orientation of a property is to access the floor plans. If these are unavailable, they can be consulted at the Land Registry.
The plans are arranged with the top facing north, so based on this, we can know which cardinal point each part of the house is oriented towards depending on whether it is above, below, to the left or to the right on the plan.
Use a compass
If you have physical access to the house or land for which you want to calculate the orientation, you can use a compass to find out its position relative to the sun.
Once inside the house, you just have to stand facing the wall and look where the needle is pointing.
With Google Maps or Google Earth
A good option for finding out the orientation of a property without having to go there or consult floor plans is Google Maps. To calculate a house's orientation with Google Maps, you only need the address.
Once we've located the house, we enter it into the search engine and orient the map so that north is at the top. Then, we simply draw conclusions based on the position of each cardinal point.
