Do you think this would make any appreciable difference?

My house is on a corner lot and the front faces directly north. Meaning the all brick facade and high ceilings are directly south into the summer sun. Needless to say in Oklahoma, late June through early September, the AC runs 17-21 hours per day. The south side of the house has 0% shade.

I'm sure the chimney is part of the great heat sink on the south side of the house. And the loving room and master have vaulted 17-18' ceilings.

We've been working on the front landscaping, so I was curious about the back yard.

Do you think planting larger trees (that would cover all the brick) would make a difference in the cooling bills during the summer? 

My thought is during the day the bricks wouldn't be able to absorb nearly as much heat to keep releasing into the house during the night. Thus helping the overall temp and starting temp in the morning.

Shade works wonders for blocking heat. Plant trees that are native to the area though.

Shortly after buying my house I lost a mature Ash tree on the south side of my house.  Its not being there has made an huge increase to my summer house temps.  All brick house with shingle roof.  

I had a house with massive mature deciduous trees to the south of it. During the summer the house was appreciably cooler than my friends houses that were not similarly shaded. 

You can also feel the significant temperature drop when on a motorcycle and you ride among trees. It feels 15 degrees cooler or more in the treed areas. 

I have a large maple shading most of the front of my house and the house stays cool enough that I rarely use the air conditioner and my front porch stays comfortable on all but the hottest days.

Trees on the south ...yes, but how long do you expect to live there?

759NRNG said:

Trees on the south ...yes, but how long do you expect to live there?

Hopefully no longer than 5 more years. I'm thinking about resale with everything we've been doing.

Lots of evergreens grow quickly here with the sun and daily watering. And my thought was keeping the sun off the brick would help the summer temp rise.

Even with a new HVAC system in July/August, the AC will come on around 6:30 am and stay on constant until about 10 pm, and the house (with the AC on) will continue to increase in temp.from 68-69 in the morning to about 75 as the sun goes down, just Oklahoma.

Then my girlfriend pointed out what would we spend on the trees and watering and would that be more than the electricity of the AC.

What's the angle of the sun in winter vs summer there?

You will get a little help in the summer, but prevent a lot of light from hitting the south side of the house in the winter.

If anything you want some sort of overhang on the roof to keep that face shaded in the warm months but not in the cooler months.

In general, any tree that grows that quickly is garbage and you don't want it on your property.  Speaking as someone who as a few of those garbage trees around.

For an out of the box idea to help in the short term: We lived in a brick rental with no shade and undersized AC. I once burned my hand when I touched the brick next to the door. After that, I took a bucket of water and threw it on the wall. It sizzled, steamed, and there wasn’t even a wet spot after about 30 seconds. 

Being in college, I had significant free time, so I proceeded to soak that wall with the hose every 30 minutes or so for about a minute at a time. It helped significantly. Maybe you could put a sprinkler on a timer? 

In reply to z31maniac :

Yes,•••••• But. 

Mature trees will help cool your house in the summer but have issues of their own.  

Leaves to rake up is obvious, but hidden are roots,  they can cause issues with buckling sidewalks foundations, plugged drains lawns etc.  

Not to mention if too close ( and thus more effective in cooling the house for more of the day)  branches or even full trees falling onto the roof in high wind situations.  

There are fast growing trees like certain maples that quickly grow but have horrible records regarding rotting. 

Or Basswood with its very large leaves quickly and completely shades a house, but also fails in high wind situations. Not even  Tornado’s are required straight line winds took out the big one in front of my house.  

White oak tends to be a nice big shade producing tree with a strong root structure that’s not too invasive .  However it will be nearly a century before it approaches full growth. 

I witnessed this first hand with a house I rented. It was an older brick and plaster house with no insulation. An ex-summer home turned into rental. As a top and bottom duplex (I was on the top) I had a great full width deck with an awning that faced south-west. The last year I was there, we had a hurricane scare and the owners removed the awning at the beginning of August and never put it back up. It made the front of the place completely uninhabitable in the afternoon into the evening. The bricks would soak up the heat and transfer it to the plaster on the inside.

I didn't renew my lease after that. I did a lot of complaining about the awning and nobody cared

z31maniac said:

I'm sure the chimney is part of the great heat sink on the south side of the house. And the loving room and master have vaulted 17-18' ceilings.

 

Trees would also help screen the neighbors from the action going on in the loving room. Never seen one of those on a floor plan.

In reply to Johnboyjjb :

I've had that plan for many floors!

ProDarwin said:

What's the angle of the sun in winter vs summer there?

You will get a little help in the summer, but prevent a lot of light from hitting the south side of the house in the winter.

If anything you want some sort of overhang on the roof to keep that face shaded in the warm months but not in the cooler months.

 

 

In general, any tree that grows that quickly is garbage and you don't want it on your property.  Speaking as someone who as a few of those garbage trees around.

Not sure of the exact angle. Just trying to think of ways to help out in the summer.

The house still has the original 1984 windows, but I don't have the money for that. The house has huge windows, ignore the the three windows in the kitchen and two bathrooms, all the windows are 6' tall, then there are the 5 windows at the top of the vaulted ceiling in the living room and master.

mtn said:

For an out of the box idea to help in the short term: We lived in a brick rental with no shade and undersized AC. I once burned my hand when I touched the brick next to the door. After that, I took a bucket of water and threw it on the wall. It sizzled, steamed, and there wasn’t even a wet spot after about 30 seconds. 

 

Being in college, I had significant free time, so I proceeded to soak that wall with the hose every 30 minutes or so for about a minute at a time. It helped significantly. Maybe you could put a sprinkler on a timer? 

Not quite that, but at my old house, in July/August, I'd go outside and spray down the AC condenser.

15 or so minutes would pull 3-4 degrees out of the house. But that house was MUCH worse than the current one. We could get it down to 67 by sunrise and it would get up to 76-77 by the evening. With the AC running nonstop.

This house isn't anywhere near that bad.

Shade would help to improve your quality of life, but I'm skeptical that it would make financial sense given your timeline and I doubt it would have any appreciable impact on resale value.

Just to give a completely different perspective, I'm cutting down any tree that could potentially land on our house. Our former neighbors had a large tree come down and seeing how easily it sliced through the house was a huge wake-up call. We've had two bad storms (tornado, then an ice storm) in the past year that have shown me that I don't want the risk of a large tree coming down and hitting the house. YMMV, but for me the extra shade isn't worth the risk.

In reply to dj06482 :

I'm was thinking 8-10' tall evergreens that grow tight just to keep the sun off the brick.

They wouldn't be over the house, nor do ever get big enough branches to worry about something like that.

STM317 said:

Shade would help to improve your quality of life, but I'm skeptical that it would make financial sense given your timeline and I doubt it would have any appreciable impact on resale value.

That's what I'm thinking as well, probably wouldn't pay for itself money wise.

And while it may not improve the property value, homes with nice landscaping seem to sell much more quickly than ones that don't.

If its about finances, its a money losing proposition.  You'll be eliminating the bonus you get from southern sun in the winter, which is much greater than the sun penalty in the summer.

Now if you have crazy cheap heat and/or expensive electricity it may impact the balance there.

We need pics of the "loving room".

ProDarwin said:

If its about finances, its a money losing proposition.  You'll be eliminating the bonus you get from southern sun in the winter, which is much greater than the sun penalty in the summer.

Now if you have crazy cheap heat and/or expensive electricity it may impact the balance there.

yes, I think you want something that loses it's leaves in the winter. Then you still get the warm winter sun but shade in summer still

ProDarwin said:

If its about finances, its a money losing proposition.  You'll be eliminating the bonus you get from southern sun in the winter, which is much greater than the sun penalty in the summer.

Now if you have crazy cheap heat and/or expensive electricity it may impact the balance there.

Not about money, utilities are pretty cheap here. I think last August the electricity bill was still under $180 with the AC running nearly non-stop.

Just more of a "I'd like to use less energy if I can" type of thing. 

Got it.  Same comment applies though.  You'll use more in winter than you'll save in summer, unless your leaves work out right like mad_machine said.

I have a monster maple at the back of our house, you can feel the difference standing at the back of the house under the tree vs the front.