Best place for a house on a hill in various climates

Programming & Analysis
1

House on a south-facing hill:

Please weigh in on these rules of thumb: are they accurate?

  • Hot dry climate: put house at the bottom of the hill. (again - talking about a south facing slope in all of these examples.) Rationale: solar heated air rises up to superheat the higher slopes of a south face of the hill. Cool air pools at the bottom.

  • Hot humid climate: put house at the top of the slope. Rationale: maximize breezes.

  • Temperate climate: if site is on a south facing hill, build half way up. Rationale: avoids moderate cooling winds at the top and moderate cooling pools of air at the bottom. Residential projects are usually heating-dominated in temperate climates.

  • Cold climate: put house half way up the slope. Rationale: frigid wind blasts the top of the slope, and icy air pools at the bottom. Residential projects are always heating-dominated in cold climates.

(Purposely just zeroing in on slope by itself and ignoring the other important factors of project location on a site. )

2

@coachjoeyandrada @coachfaithbroussard Your thoughts?

3

Generally, these rules of thumb sound good. As you say, remember there is always a lot that goes into locating a building in the best spot on a site. If you want to look into this more, I would recommend chapter of one of Building Constructed Illustrated by Francis Ching - there is a lot of good site information that is helpful for PA in that chapter.