Description

Our climate is getting warmer, and BRANZ research over recent decades has found our houses are following suit. That’s a combined result of increased airtightness, higher-performing thermal insulation, increased areas of glazing, fewer or smaller eaves and changing occupant behaviour.

Planning to prevent overheating should be part of the earliest stages of design. Things to consider:

• Building orientation that takes advantage of cooling breezes.
• Passive design options such as cross-ventilation and stack ventilation, where fresh cool air enters a building at a lower level and hot, stale air is naturally expelled at a higher level (e.g. skylights).
• Shade devices such as eaves and louvres.
• Window placement, size and glazing appropriate to the local climate and orientation.
• Using thermal modelling tools to identify designs with optimal indoor temperatures.

Scope

This article includes:

• All about eaves
• Calculating the depth for eaves
• Glazing