Quote:
Unfortunately this is not actually correct, if you are happy with your (south-facing
) house that's great but I want to say this for others who may still be in the design phase.
Rain, and the worst of the snow, will not blow very far into the house no matter which way it faces, simply because it falls out too fast to get to the back.
In terms of WIND penetration, however, it certainly DOES matter which way the house faces (and note that essentially all the old-timey ones faced S or E even if that was not the most convenient direction landscape-wise...).
An angled wind DOES penetrate to the back of that shape building (or anyhow reasonably far). It creates a sort of swirling generally-U-shaped circulation. And it is rare that wind will be blowing absolutely square to the building, angled winds are much more common. Therefore, if you want to avoid windiness in the back of the house (and you really do!!), you need to have its back to the major winter winds.
I know Prince has his happy little basically-drawn-out-of-imagination diagram and his little fairy story about air cushions and all that, but they are not really especially reality-based. This is one of several situations in which his GENERAL point still holds, but his extreme boosterism gets the better of him and what he says departs somewhat from how things actually work
Bottom line: you really DO have to face the house away from your major problem weather. The actual direction that this means your house should face will therefore depend on where you live (not just hemisphere, but region and site), but it is a very easy and reliable rule of thumb for anywhere.
Just sayin',
Pat
Pat
Have you ever sat in a Woods style coop with a smoking candle to see how the wind/air moves through the coop? I know I haven't, and I have one. So how do you KNOW for sure how the wind /air moves through it? I know THIS, As I have said, I don't care from whichever direction the wind blows. You don't feel any "Swriling U-shaped circulation". If that was the case, then my chickens would be living in the deadly DRAFT everbody is afraid of. I have been in that house every day since I built it. I have a pretty good idea of how weather affects it. Say, for example, the wind is coming at the house from one of the front corners. If I was to enter the house and shut the door behind me. I feel NO swirling winds in the house, None. Now, say I open the entry door. Now I can feel the wind/air flow through the house, Because there is a path for the wind/air to travel. Now, what would be the reason for that? I'll have to go with the "Air Cushion" theory.
Also, I am not suggesting that everybody in the WORLD point their house toward the south. I am aware of different prevailing winds that exist in whatever hemisphere somebody may live in. So of course, people are going to have to place their coop in the best position for their area. I almost sense a hostility to Dr. Woods from you, You have practically called him a kook and a liar. He is no longer here to defend himself, But I am.
Jack
