Sunroom Orientation

The orientation of the sunroom will rest ultimately with your homes design. Irregardless of any other consideration, you must take into consideration your home's layout and where the sunroom addition would make the most sense. It needs to be placed in a manner that it gets used, or where there is room for the addition.

Ideally, the sunroom orientation should be to the south. This creates the highest level of energy efficiency for the addition. It can gather the sun's rays during the day and redistribute some of this warmth to the rest of the home using ceiling or floor fans.

If a south facing orientation is not possible, then next best might be southeast or southwest. Trees which block the sun, or neighboring building must also be taken into consideration. Decidous trees may be an advantage to the sunroom, as in winter they lose their leaves and allow the sun to shine through. In summer, the leaf canopy may provide shade to the sunroom, creating better cooling energy efficiency.

The next best orientation for the sunroom addition would either be to the east or west. One of these would at least give some sun during part of the day.

The least desirable orientation for the sunroom would be a north facing location, unless, of course the person reading this is in the southern hemisphere. Facing north would guarentee almost no sun, so the addition would provide no heating for the home and very little for itself.