Building an Energy Efficient Home for Less, Tip 4

#4 No Hallways. Strange as it may seem, it is likely that the most comfortable room in your house will be the hallway, for the simple reason that in most houses, that’s where thermostat is located. All the other rooms will be colder or warmer depending on the apparent temperature immediately outside.

The apparent temperature is the actual thermometer temperature plus the solar gain when the sun is shining (it feels warmer facing the sun) minus the windchill factor (It feels colder facing the wind). In many houses the hallway separates the warm and the cold side of the house making the south facing rooms extremely hot when the sun is shining, and the north facing room extremely cold when the wind is blowing.

By eliminating the hallways air is able to move from both the warm and cold sides of the house and mix at comfortable temperature in the middle and as added bonus, the amount of usable floor space increases by as much as 10% while reducing construction costs.