Adrienne Wimbush

I'm sorry I wasn't clear - I mean put clear panels in the verandah roof over where the windows are.

Gudday!
  We are building a solar passive modular home with wheat-straw panels for insulation, which has a fair bit of glass on the Northern side. (Southern Hemi.) We will be in the Southern Highlands which can get quite cold (for Australia!) with decent frosts and the occasional snowstorm. Summers however can be quite hot.
 The house is approx 12m x 4.6m and will be angled just a little east of true north.  We will build a 3m wide verandah along the north wall, and run a wood heater/oven/stove for winter. As soon as possible I will be building a cob surround with benches either side to absorb the heat in winter and coolth in summer.
 My question is regarding allowing the winter sun in to the northern windows with a 3m verandah shading them. I was planning to put clear panels over the windows and large sliding glass door, and then build angled wooden louvres under to allow the winter sun and block the summer. Is that feasible? I'm a little stumped on how wide the clear panels should be. As wide as the windows or wider, and by how much?
Adrienne
I've attached a plan of the house without the verandah, which will be on what is the bottom wall in the plan.

I just found a fantastic video showing some mind-boggling craftmanship when it comes to stone and wood...
Particularly check from 20:58 to 21:06!
Adrienne

You are most welcome, Judith!
It was an amazing trip, I really enjoyed it. I'm also very grateful that my daughter is into her 4th year of learning the language, without her I would have been lost a dozen times over!

1.Looking up into the ceiling of our room. The ricepaper lightcover was lovely. Although the walls and roof were warm and thick, the wooden doors where not all that good at keeping the cold out. I'd imagine they were even colder without the bubble wrap!
2. A hanok I saw on the way to one of the dozen-odd buses we caught from one end of Sth Korea to the other! Very cheap way to travel, and mostly very comfortable.
3. The only shot I got of a large hanok-like building being built.

1.A close up of the beautiful little carved stone steps and the stone pier foundations.
2. The courtyard wall - the peek through shows the thickness. I loved how the walls tied in with the gate and the house roofs.
3. The eaves.

I hope no-one minds me sharing these pics! I can stop at any time haha!
The next hanok we stayed in was in Gyeongju, at 'Hanok Sodamjeong. It was very traditional in that it seemed to be all cob walls, yet not so with an airconditioner, heater, flat screed TV and a wonderful ensuite/wet shower room attached at the back. This hanok was by far my favourite. The whole town was full of lovely hanoks.
1. Shoes were strictly forbidden inside - they were left outside on the step, or under in case of rain or snow.
2. The courtyard wall and gate. The wall was mud with large stones, well protected by a tiled top.
3. The room, ensuite door to the left. Despite the thick mud walls and ondol floor, we could still feel cold air through the doors, and put our feet at that end!

My daughter and I had the pleasure of staying in traditional Hanok's in South Korea, in February this year.
She is over there for a year, at Uni in Soeul, and I was delighted to take the opportunity to see some traditional Korean timber homes. I have to admit to finding the sleeping arrangements VASTLY uncomfortable and succumbing to the purchase and use of a thin air camping mattress. That improved matters greatly. I had Jay. C. and Bill B. firmly in mind whilst touring, and was in awe of the architecture. The most lovely Hanok we stayed in was in Gyeongju, at 'Hanok Sodamjeong'. Peter you might be interested to know that the walls there were all described to me as 'mud' by the owner. Anyway, I'll post pics, but at 3 at a time it will take awhile.
The first one we stayed in was in Seoul, near the temple district. (Where I discovered my western body did NOT cope with bed rolls (even folded in half, x2)!
1. The stormwater pipes and the porch were all copper.
2. View from the main room into the room we stayed in.
3. The ceiling in the main room. The main beam was a foot square!

Some pics from the Jeju Island Folk Village. Sorry about the quality, my Canon hates cloudy days!

I had the pleasure of 8 days touring Sth Korea with my daughter whom is at Uni in Seoul, in February. By choice we stayed in 'Hanoks'; traditional Korean homes, and I delighted in the ondol heating in each. With a move from sub-tropical to cool temperate shortly, I'm converted as to the livability of these systems. It's not unheard of Down Under, (hydronic underfloor heating) but it's rare enough that I've only walked on it a couple of times before. My daughter, 10 flights up in a share apartment in Seoul, says that they can tell when all the apartments around them turn theirs on, as they get heated up too! Sometimes to the point of having to open the windows to cool off!
I got a few photos of my trip over, I was fascinated by the wooden pieces on the floor - all totally removable. (I didn't try!) I was a little tickled by the stylishly printed bubble wrap on the rice paper doors, too!
I'm flumoxed as to how to add pics though - I don't have a website that I put them on, barring my facebook account.
We did get to spend a (very wet) day at one of the Folk Villages on Jeju Island. That was amazing. There I got pics of the original ondol systems.
Adrienne