Windows.
Already discussed above as a material/component, windows are also a key element of correct orientation and need appropriate placement, size and type (double-glazed) to work well with the orientation to the sun. Each home’s situation is different as homes are of varied size, shape and layout, as are the sites they sit on.
The principles below can be followed when choosing glazing (windows) to optimise the thermal performance of your home in Southern Victoria:

• Locate and size the glazing (and its shading) to let in sunshine in colder months, and exclude the sun in hot months.
• Design/ install/ place thermal mass to match the windows, so as to absorb the winter sun’s heat into the building, for natural warmth in cold seasons.
• Locate window and door openings to allow natural cooling by cross-ventilation.

For retro-fits (established homes), revised orientation options are often available also, such as alterations to room-use and to windows (location, size, shading), skylights and external shading. 
Example 1: if a bedroom is receiving the best winter sun but the living room is dark, they can be swapped around in use for immediate benefit.
Example 2: if a kitchen window is on the darker South wall, adding even a small new window to the East wall to receive the morning Winter sun would make a big difference to the amount of light entering the kitchen.

ACCLIMATISATION THROUGH INTERNAL ROOM PLACEMENT (IRP).

Internal room placement is the consideration of how to best lay-out a building’s floor plan internally in terms of comfort, energy use and sustainability. Following on from orientation of the whole building to the sun’s path, we next plan the best position and details of different individual rooms. 

Here we consider how rooms interact, the different room-uses and room-use patterns, the time of their use (day or night?), their length of use and their heating/cooling requirements.

IRP Considerations.

• Plan your most preferred day-time winter-time sunny areas specifically, such as designing for the mid-day winter sun to land on a living room sofa. Generally place your daytime living areas and family rooms to the North, to maximise natural daylight and winter sun in those areas. 
• Set home ‘zones’ of similar-room uses to reduce heating and cooling needs. Example: situate bedrooms together on the South side to create a cool, dark, quiet sleeping zone.
• Place garages to the West to block excessive summer afternoon-sun to other rooms.
• Place kitchens (usually East) where they receive the morning sun.
• Avoid putting ‘non-use’ rooms like garages where they may take the best winter sun or block winter sun to living rooms.
• Avoid western positions for bedrooms, to avoid a hot and bright summer afternoon sun in sleeping rooms.
• Design wet-rooms together to save on water heat-loss from longer pipes.
  Group unheated rooms (garage, laundry) also.
• Include (+ close) internal doors to close-off areas not in use, and at stairs to stop up and down drafts and heat-exchange.
• Consider airflow and cross-ventilation in the design stage to pre-set a path and control the air flow passage across the home.

Not all above options can be applied to every home, though adopting even a few of these can make a huge difference to comfort.

Airlock. (See image below).
An airlock is a small room (usually 2m ~ 8m2) placed at an external door to prevent unwanted exchanges of the home’s air when the external door is open. If a home is sitting at a comfortable temperature of 20℃, and (for example) it’s cold and windy outside, an open external door may result in a quick air exchange that leaves the home at (say) 9℃. Correct use of an airlock would mean that only the air in the airlock room was exchanged, whilst the rest of the home is still comfortable at 20℃.  Airlocks should be strongly considered in particularly windy regions but offer benefits in all hot and cold climates and cost nothing to run.

Climate Room.
For homes where large structural changes for orientation are not possible (perhaps due to cost), a ‘climate room’ may be the best improvement option. This is where a high-use room type, such as a living room, is given priority and is placed in the best location for its use.
For example, the conversion of a North-facing but seldom-used dining room into a sunny sitting room is a great way to bring natural comfort to a high-use room. Insulating that room well would further add to its comfort.

A climate room is a good solution for a person who will spend a great amount of time in that updated room and who would benefit greatly from its retrofit. We can utilise what we know about the sun’s movement, about shade options, insulation and other TACTICS principles to make a room comfortable and suitable for a new use. For when it’s not possible to apply TACTICS to a whole home, adapting part of a home (perhaps just a room) is the next best option.