Talk of The Villages Florida - Suggestions wanted for home sun exposure preferences

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Thanks everyone for your well thought out insights and advice. It seems, by and large, that people prefer a North or East-facing lanai for reduced sun and temperature exposure but prefer a South or West-facing lanai for sunsets (especially if you have a structure, shade system, wall, or massive tree to mitigate the directness of that sunlight as it wanes into the eve.

Lots of valid considerations

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catalina36 (Post 2115533)

Great Question, I have owned my home in The Villages now since Oct, 2020. That question did not even dawn on me till after I purchased my home. It's difficult enough finding the right house, the location to your neighborhood pool, shopping and town squares, etc.etc. Now you want to throw in the direction of the sun facing your house. Well my house faces North, and my garage stays cooler then the houses across the street which face south. I hear those homeowners with their house facing south complaing that their garages get really hot from the direct sun hitting their garage door. Some of those homeowners keep their garage doors open and they have screens covering the doorway to allow the heat to escape and keep the bugs out. I also noticed some homeowners installl vents in the lower panels of the garage doors for better air circulation. A worth while upgrade which I have is solar powered roof vents. I have 2 the previous owner was smart to have them installed to vent the hot attic. I also have a birdcage in the rear of the house which gets a lot of sun and sitting out there can get pretty hot. Now, if you ever decide to get solar panels on your roof you would most likely want a house with the rear roof facing south. So you dont have to look at those ugly solar panels from the street looking at your house. I hope I helped to answer your question.

The author brings a lot of valid considerations that I agree with there are a lot more important considerations than how your house faces. And there's even more considerations such as do you want to be on a golf course how close do you want to be to the tee boxes how close do you want to be to the green how far away are you from the ball possibly hitting your house or property. Do you want waterview how far away from the water is your view. Believe me by the time you go through these considerations your head will be spinning and your options will become less and less and you'll be looking for years. That being said we have a west facing non glass Lanai (love the air) overlooking very close water with a golf cart path on the other side of the water and the sun sets are absolutely beautiful. We use this almost every morning for breakfast and probably at least half the time for suppers (eating out the rest). wouldn't trade the lot for anything else.

The sun down here is pretty brutal, that's just how it is.

Our place has the lanai, living area, and master bedroom with windows to the north - the sun doesn't shine in those windows and the area stays cooler.
Our kitchen and other corner of the lanai face east and get morning sun.
We use a blind for the lanai when we want to use it, we also have trees there.

The south and west exposures are the garage and extra bedrooms, which are our lowest priority. We do have an electric garage fan which helps keep the garage and attic ventilated.

If the home you find has an exposure you don' t like, consider shades or some landscaping. Best wishes.

No matter what everyone says, although the sunsets will be nice, you will roast with a west facing lanai in the afternoon unless you enclose and air condition it.

I prefer west facing house, shade on back lanai in the late afternoon/evening because that's when we're most likely to entertain. We also have a smaller lanai in front which is shaded in the morning. Our house in the north has a west facing porch, we just live with it. Having said all this, probably not in the top 10 factors for buying a particular house.