In praise of morning sun

There are few prerequisites I have in place before looking to buy a house. Most of us will have the front of mind items: proximity of schools, access to public transport, shopping centres. One of the less regarded and easily identified is the aspect of the morning sun on the house/property.

Of course one does not often buy and move into houses, so examination and intent should as strongly considered as any other element of desirability. If you’re in the market for a new place, the daily and seasonal comfort (including that of the sun) should high in the list of requirements along with whatever your fancies (eg. large kitchen, garage). Remember you can renovate a crappy bathroom of kitchen, it’s much harder to change where the sun rises and falls in relation to your floor-plan.

I have never heard anyone say a house is too bright or has too much natural light. Conversely no one will ever say they would prefer a room or hallway to be just a little bit darker unless this is the intent of the design (eg. movie cinema room). Natural light has an affect of increasing the perspective of spacial volume and creates a fresh open affect. To invite this into your house every morning is one of the cheapest and spectacular ways to increase occupant wellbeing.

“Morning sun in your house is like pouring gold every day”

When searching for a potential house I’d always look where the morning sun strikes. If you invite morning sun to pour into the kitchen and dining table (where you eat breakfast) — this is pinnacle of a grand design. The sun serves to orientate your body clock to the rhythm of the morning and stamping your circadian rhythm. It’s cheap, free and worth a million bucks.

You probably don’t want the sun to strike your bedroom first thing — especially in summer unless you’re a lark. Like morning sun for the kitchen/dining, if you’re lucky to get the setting sun in your bedroom — that’s ideal as you can get — the dying embers of the day will paint a relaxing warm calm into your room.

Tools like SunCalc will help determine suitability if you ever need to consider this in your future abode. Model and observe where the sun hits on the respective solar solstices and equinoxes. A poorly positioned house will be dark daily misery if you’re like me and appreciate a high natural light aesthetic. Not only affecting wellbeing, house aspect impacts energy usage greatly, but an examination of this design element can be for another post.

In the meantime if you happen to be on the market for a new home, keep in mind this simple requirement for daily joy every after.