Consider the kitchen as a supplementary heating device for your home. In hot climates, it’s typically better to place the kitchen on the side of the house opposite the direction of the prevailing winds. If the prevailing wind is out of the southeast, place the kitchen on the north side of the house. This will help to exhaust heat from the house throughout the summer. In the winter, north winds will push heat from cooking appliances back into the living space. Even in predominately cold climates, a north kitchen location is preferred, as it effectively doubles the return on investment on whatever type of energy is used for cooking.
The same benefit applies to heat generated from your laundry room, especially if you use your clothes dryer. Again, locating it on the north side of the house with the dryer connection on the exterior wall might reduce the loads affecting your cooling system. The best practice would be to locate the laundry room outside of the conditioned living space, to keep the moisture and heat loads outside. If there is a large, open unshaded area on the west side of the house, plan to use that space for a clothesline.
Also, consider how room placement could provide additional insulation of main living areas. In hot climates, try to flank your west-facing walls with closets, garages, utility room or other buffer space to mitigate direct afternoon sun into your living space. These buffer spaces will reduce the heat infiltration into the living spaces, lowering your cooling loads and cost of operations.
In a cool region, cover the west wall with deep overhangs, porches, awnings, or seasonal shade devices such as trees or vines. Better yet, build a detached garage or carport on the west side, which will still work to shade the building while separating pollutants like auto exhaust and any chemical products stored in the garage away from the living space of the home. Of course, in cold climates you want your main living areas on the south side, for passive solar gains. The south side of the house would be a good location for a solarium or sun room and some type of thermal mass like a tile floor, as these south-facing glass-enclosed rooms provide additional winter sun exposure in cold climates. Sunrooms are almost never appropriate additions in hot climates.
For raising a family, consider having all the sleeping areas upstairs. Locating all bedrooms upstairs allows us to install a zoned HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) system, which means separate control thermostats for each floor. This allows for managing upstairs comfort in sleeping areas at night separately from downstairs comfort for living areas during occupied, active hours, reducing operating costs and extending the life of systems.
There’s no reason to have a master bedroom downstairs unless you expect an aging relative to live with you while you are raising your family. Once their kids are grown, most couples downsize to a home that is more economical to maintain. The majority of seniors prefer single- story homes, as climbing the stairs can become increasingly more difficult in aging-in-place scenarios.
Sleeping rooms were popular in warm climates before we had air conditioning. Screened porches were on the side of the home that could capture the prevailing breeze. We can still locate our bedrooms on this side of the house and open our windows at night during milder seasons, to sleep comfortably without air conditioning. This extends the non-cooling season, saving energy and money.
