Regardless whether you are interested in helping to improve our environment or just to lower your heating and cooling bills participating in the Design of Your Own Home can help you do so and with extra benefits. Benefits such as an integrated and attractive home which even if not immediately Green will be ready in the future for important additions at little to no extra cost. Where you start is with your house site. If you already own your land then you evaluate it for its green potential. If you have yet to purchase the land then you can use this article for criteria to use in your site selection.

This article is though only the first of several where your Site determines the feasibility and efficiency of numerous Green related elements. Here is a broader list:

• A House's Shape & Location Using Solar Generated Electricity for Power (This article).
  
• Augmenting Solar Power with Wind Power.
  
• More than the Color Green Landscape Plan.
  
• Site Preservation vs. Site Manipulation.
  
• Site Features to Improve on or to Create.
  
• House Zoning.
  
  
  
  Following is discussion of the first element;
  
  House Shape and Location Using Solar Power
  
  This one subject alone should help anyone interested in Solar Powering a new unbuilt house do the following:
  
  
  
  
  • Maximize the performance of a Solar Power System.
    
  • Improve and ease the implementation of a Solar Power System.
    
  • Improve the appearance of a Solar Powered Home.
    
  • Provide for the easy installation of a future system, if longer range implementation is necessary.
    
    
    
    In this day and age we all are aware of Solar Powers promise. With every spike in fuel costs we become more acutely aware. Today is a good time for anyone designing their own home to get at least started. The purpose here though is not to delve into the intricacies of Solar Power. Many ebooks, manuals and products are now on the market to take the home owner or DIYer through the technicalities step by step. A link at the end of the article reviews a number of manuals to get you started.
    
    Instead this article seeks to deliver a more focused input into the Solar Power equation; that of your house's shape on its site. Most of these suggestions are well known. What is important is to increase your success by using all of them as a precursor to the design of your home and not the other way around. In this manner you will have the ability, or at least the future potential, of Solar Power incorporated more efficiently and attractively into your home (rather than 'tacked' on).
    
    In short, a floor plan should NOT be done prior to determining your Solar Power Plan. This is the mistake made time in and time out as can be seen from all of those adhoc panels propped awkwardly on roofs and in yards.
    
    What is a SOLAR POWER PLAN?
    
    A Solar Power Plan starts with a diagram of your land showing four decisions.
    
    
    
    
    • Where the house is located,
      
    • How it is oriented (N/S),
      
    • How it is shaped,
      
    • And the direction, size and angle of the roof.
      
      
      
      You make these four important decisions by using the following rules.
      
      
      
      
      • Solar Panels need to be oriented properly toward the sun.
        (South with both mid summer and winter taken into account).
        
      • Panels need to be as high as possible.
        (Preferably on the roof and at high point of your land to gain the most light).
        
      • The angle of the roof should be the same as the ideal angle of the panels.(Simplifies installation, strengthens the panels & looks better).
        
      • Panels need to be contiguous and as compact as possible.(Limits wiring, voltage drop & looks better).
        
      • The roof area should be large enough to achieve the panels for your power goal.(Calculate your panel area according to your power goals first.)
        
      • Distance to battery storage and house equipment should be as short as possible.(Limits wiring and voltage drop).
        
      • Shadows should not be cast over the panels.(Need we say, don't have tall trees in the wrong place or the house located poorly on a hill).
        
        
        
        Once you have done your technical research the answers to these do and don't rules are pretty simple. Finally, once you have these answers and put them together you will see how and why Solar Power needs to be the first dictator of the location, shape, orientation and height of your house. You will also have started the most important part of your Solar Power Plan.
        
        Copyright 2009 Len King & Masterworks Inc. All rights reserved.
        
        This article is an excerpt from an eBook called Home Sweet Home Design available for preview at the following web site -- [http://www.paradisepub.net].
        For related reference material and related books go to [http://www.homesweetdesign.net]