I am looking at buying some land.  Right now I am doing my homework and designing a passive solar home.  I know that the home SHOULD face north/south and the east/west windows should be kept to a minimum. 

However with the land I am working with I will most likely have to have east/west.   The land has an old bank so I may have to do a split level house by building into the bank....

I live in the south so for me the issue is to MINIMIZE the heat gains.  

My question is.....If I put huge porches on the front and back that prevent direct sunlight from entering through the windows how heat would I still gain from the window on the east/west side vs the north/south side of the house?

I will most likely use ICF to do the house.

The simplest solution is to use a low solar gain LowE coating on your east and west facing windows.

Look for windows with a SHGC of .30 or lower and combined with your porches you will be fine.

I was already planning on using low-e windows and maybe even the screens...

Also, I am planning on putting an outdoor greatroom in the back...kind of like a super patio....my hopes was that this would block all the direct sunlight from the east....

On the front I am thinking about a patio with a wicker couch, etc on it....this means an overhang of about 6 - 8 feet....covering the east facing windows.....

Given this, I hope to block most of the direct sunlight... I figure I will get some indirect sunlight but I don't know about other solar radiation and how to run a calculation about the difference in passive heat just from having the windows on the east - west facing sides.....any ideas?

Thanks

I will have a similar situation.  The long side of my house will face 248° to fit the great view and the direction of the 20° slope a bit north of San Antonio

My solution will be to use motorized, exterior blinds.

Use LOW solar heat gain glass (spectral selective with a good shading coefficient).  The problem with interior blinds is that with modern glass, once you let the heat of the sun in, you cannot reflect it back out.  The low e coating wants to keep the heat.

Bruce

Put long porches/overhangs on the east/west sides and place/plant deciduous shade trees to block low angle sunlight in summer months. Put shorter trees/shrubs closer to the home and taller ones farther out. This should block any direct sunlight on your windows during the warm season.

Thanks....I also found a note about this on the Florida energy efficiency site....and they said that you
should minimize the east - west facing windows, but if you have them to  use exterior shudders and
shading, etc....which is what others have said here.....

So I have no hard numbers, but it looks like if I go ahead and do this, that I should be ok as long as
I block as much of the direct and indirect sun as possible.....

Thanks to all for the response.