When designing an island home, large or small, start by first setting some important basic priorities. After choosing the building lot location consider how you will place the home on the lot to best capture the trade winds. This should be one of your top plot plan priorities. Freely circulating trade winds moving about your home on a hot day are very appealing and will add value to your home plus provide comfort during the hot afternoons and sultry evenings.
Take Advantage of the Trade Winds
The cooling trade winds typically flow from the North to North-East on Kaua’i. At times the trade winds reverse and come from the south. These winds are typically known as Kona winds and bring with them hot and humid air along with vog (volcanic smog) from the active volcano on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Although vog isn’t a big problem on Kaua’i like it is in Kona on the Big Island, the southern Kona wind can still become an irritant for those with sensitivities.
So place your windows in such a way to take advantage of the Easterly air flow while also keeping in mind that tropical rain showers are frequent and low placed windows can become a problem. Many tropical home designers will place Jalousie windows above the larger picture windows. This placement is great for home safety, and optimizes temperature control.
Go Solar when Venting The Attic
Another priority, is to include one or two solar roof vents. This is a cost effective and efficient approach that helps draw the hot air from inside the home up through the attic and outside. Solar roof vents come in various sizes depending on the size of space you are venting. Adequate attic ventilation will also extend the life of your roof.
Remember the Insulation
Another consideration is to add a layer of reflective insulation under your roofing material to assist in bouncing back some of the solar energy from the sun’s hot rays. In stick built homes also insulate all the outside walls to help keep the inside temperature cooler on hot days or warmer during the cooler winter days.
For sound proofing, also insulate the inner walls which helps with noise control and privacy. If you run an air conditioner in your bedroom at night or an office during the day, it will make it more efficient. Although electricity is quite expensive in the islands which makes running an air conditioner somewhat of a luxury. The best idea is to place windows to capture cross ventilation and add a fan to circulate the air.
Because so much of island living is spent outdoors, adding a screened in porch for those hot afternoons and eves will extend your living space and provide much comfort. Most islanders find the high use areas of their home are their screened in porches. On a warm eve, those who don’t have screened porches will head to their garage to watch TV or eat dinner with friends on picnic tables keeping the garage doors open or on their carports sheltered from a quick evening shower .
Kaua’i is a fabulous place to live and enjoy the outdoors. The more you can design your home around outdoor living spaces the better. By keeping your indoor square footage smaller and expanding to the outdoors it also keeps building costs down. You really don’t need a large home in Kaua’i, even kitchen space can be smaller since so much time is spent cooking outdoors on the barbecue rather than as the saying goes “slaving over a hot stove.”
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