Tell me about your south-facing house

[Streap]

We’re about to exchange on a lovely house that faces full south. Lots of windows on that side and also a loft conversion with a south facing roof and velux.

Is it going to be stupidly hot in the summer? We have been living in a damp north-east facing cottage and I’ve been so excited about the southerly aspect that I am only just realising there may be downsides.

Agree with this. My old E/W was warmer than my front south facing/north facing back! It's so cold in the winter other than the living room and main bedroom if the suns out

It's because the OP said the HOUSE is Sf. I'm not sure if they're confused and actually mean the garden though, as they don't mention a garden at all!

Yes it's hot, but I love it.

Need to keeps windows open so air blows through front to back when it's really hot.

Also, it means the other half of the house faces north so doesn't get any sun until about 7pm in the height of summer. Which is lively to sit in to cool down.

We had an East- West house before and that was horrific! Front heated up in the morning, sun moved to the back in the afternoon which meant the back then heated up. Meant the whole house got unbearably hot with nowhere to cool down. Much prefer our south facing garden now

Yes I know!
No-one usually ever means a South facing house though when they say South facing they mean the garden otherwise they would refer to north facing garden 😅

The loft with Velux will need a large fan or aircon.

The rest of the rooms should be fine in summer if you keep the curtains closed.

I'm always cold anyway, so I bloody love having a south facing garden. Last year during the heatwave the conservatory was pretty much unusuable between around 11am-6pm as it was like a sauna, but I still sat in there as much as possible. It's always so light and bright!

I had a south facing house and got full beam sun from 10am to end of day and it was unbearable at times but I loved it in the winter time. I moved to a house that gets sun first thing and then the shade moves down the garden but I have sun all day as my garden is long. But the part closest the house is fantastically cool from about 5pm to the evening which I much prefer on balance.

😂There was once a poster that said it doesn't make a difference, as the sun faces her depending on where she's standing, so every garden faces South in some part 😂

What I mean is that the garden of our house is south facing but also that most of the main rooms rooms in the house overlook the garden and are therefore also south facing. They are also predominantly glass (think big windows and double sliding doors) We are on a slope & have "a view" so there's nothing in between the windows and the view - if it's sunny it's full sun all day! We don't have curtains downstairs because Mr Thespy doesn't deem it necessary as we aren't overlooked. It's roasting and he's mad as a box of frogs. The front of the house is north facing and has far fewer windows - the kitchen faces that way and it's very dingy. I'd like to remodel but no chance of that unfortunately.

Use planting and trees to give you shade!

I'm in the minority but I hate it! We're renting looking to buy later this year and I'm hoping not to buy a south facing. Current house is fairly newish (1995) and has a conservatory. In the summer it's like a sauna. The temp in the conservatory was 45 degrees 🥵 in the summer but it does get fairly hot here (west mids). Last summer we covered the conservatory with foil insulation inside and put curtains up. This did help a lot and we've got blackout blinds on all windows. Also I have young children and there is no shade in the garden so we can only play outside until 11ish. In spring and autumn it's lovely though - today is amazing having the back doors open and the sun shining in

Yeah you can’t put conservatories on the south side because they’re unusable during the day in summer.

Ours faces south west, gets the sun from midday until sunset. We have full width patio doors and have full length thermal lined curtains which we need to close mid afternoon when the weather is warm. Upstairs its the bathroom and spare bedroom facing, so thats not a problem. Our Velux windows in the loft face that way but we keep the blinds closed and windows open up there for much of the summer!

Yes. This was exactly our experience in our last house. Too light in the south facing sitting room to watch TV without the curtains pulled all year round. Loft extension unusable.

The only upside was that the south facing garden was so scorching that we grew accidental melons from the seeds that had gone through the compost.

NE Scotland , south facing , with main bedroom in dual aspect roof space.

Lots of solar gain when we need warming up ( which is a lot. Blinds, ceiling fans and wide open windows in the height of summer. Saving up for shutters.

Wereconfigured so the back of the house is mainly dull areas -utility, tv room , bathrooms etc.

I love it.

Am south facing and in the north. Am planting an apple tree in front of each window to bring some shade this year onwards. As they'll be bare in the winter they won't block the light. Am going to see if I can grow a nectarine out the back!

Bloody cold
north facing are grim
south facing are pleasant for about 3,days a yorkshire

SquirrelsAreStinky
I always thought that it was the direction that the back garden faced that defined the description?

So the back of my house and my back garden faces south, so it’s a south facing house.

I’ve just moved from a north facing house - which meant that the front, including the kitchen, was south facing. It was still described as a north facing house.
THIS
last house south facing.
Very light - no problem with over heating
This one is south west facing.
Sun in front in morning and in bsck in afternoon.
Garden has full sun all afternoon till dusk.
So almost as good.

The phrase has clearly morphed. Everyone used to refer to a south facing garden. This meant the back garden so meant the front of the house faced north.

people here are talking about a south facing “house” which would mean the opposite - a north facing back garden. Lots of people would not buy a house with a north facing back garden.

I moved from a north facing back garden on a slope to south facing flat garden. I’m so much happier now. Last one was cold, damp and even in summer in shade so most of the time. I know this isn’t everyone’s experience of north racing though.

This house is bright and warm all summer. Rooms at that side of the house can be too hot sometimes but only a problem for very small portion of year where I live. Most benefit is probably this time if year when it is already nice enough to sit out and summer evenings when the warmest part of the day is over.

We bought a South facing terrace with a bog on the back that effectively meant we only had one South facing window. Moved the bog, opened it up and it’s wonderful, well worth doing.

It will be lovely! Our apartment is south facing with the bedrooms and whilst it is warm in the summer we have blackout blinds that are really effective. The living area is at the back and always cold.

The key is to keep the rooms cool from the evening. Close blinds, drapes or shutters if you have them.

Unfortunately the OP hasn't come back to clarify whether it's the front of the house that faces south, or in fact the back garden.

Personally I've never heard anyone talk about a south-facing house, only a south-facing garden, which to me are two opposite things as generally a north-facing house would generally have a south-facing garden 🤷‍♀️

South facing is definitely gorgeous. You can open windows!!

🙂by south facing I mean the garden faces south. In the house we’re buying all the living areas do too.