House Plan FAQs

Why is there so much variation in the passive solar performance of your home designs?

Each of our home designs was originally based on the wishes of one particular homeowner, including their preference for size, number of rooms, land, views, family size, lifestyle, and value that they placed on saving energy and being sustainable. Because every client is different in their goals, each of our plans is different, and therefore some have a greater % of passive solar than others.

I'm in a big hurry...can you help me?

We are a small, service-oriented architectural firm that specializes in passive solar home design. Attention to detail takes time, whether it is preparing the custom energy recommendations that are a part of the blueprint orders, custom changes to an existing plan, or a custom design just for you. In order for us to perform work at our high quality standards, we appreciate your getting in touch with us as soon as possible if you're considering our services, and not waiting until the day before you need the work done. Thanks!

Can you help me find a builder in my area that has built one of your homes or is willing to follow your plans? Also, can you tell me how much and what kind of insulation I should use in my climate and whether or not the overhang length will need to be adjusted for proper summer shading?

Yes, once you become a client of ours (by contracting with us on at least the first review and consulting phase of custom changes or a custom design - see this page), the sky is the limit on the type of questions you can ask and the assistance that we can give. We are used to assisting clients with things such as finding a builder or good HVAC contractor, researching new products, and pointing you to others that may be able to help you if we can't.

We also provide some limited consulting for those who just purchase blueprints, erasable vellums, or CAD files without custom changes. Just send us your list of questions along with your order. If you want the questions answered prior to ordering, then please begin our Custom Change process of which the first stage is review and consulting of your questions. The fee starts at $295 and in the event your questions truly are short (most are rather involved), we can credit any extra to your plan order.

At this time, we do not keep a database of builders, but if our business grows enough to justify this, then we might in the future. Right now, few clients take the time to report back on their builder which would be a requirement prior to us recommending them, but if you build one of our plans and find one, please let us know.

In preparing the custom energy recommendations that come with custom plans as well as the purchase of blueprints, erasable vellums, or CAD files, we take a look at the required insulation and south overhang length for your climate as well as point you to web sites that can assist you in finding a builder, good HVAC company, or non-profit organizations that provide consulting at no charge.

I would like to visit some of your completed homes. Can you tell me where the closest one to us is?

Regarding homes to view, clients to talk to, or model homes, we get many inquiries similar to this, and I hope that the following answers that we have compiled here will answer some of your questions further.

Have you looked at the photos that are available for some of our plans? Click on the drop down box for each house plan to see if there are any photos, or visit our photo summary page. Clients have generously sent us these pictures to share.

While we can certainly understand your wanting to see a finished home or talk to our clients, we rely on our web site, house plan book, study plans, construction review sets, and our reputation in passive solar design to sell our house plans. We are an architectural firm that sells only house plans and custom design, not a developer than sells finished homes or construction kits. We do not have any model homes and we do not ask that any of our clients open their homes for public viewing or to be able to discuss their home with others. We realize this may cause some loss in sales of our house plans, but the privacy of our clients is more important. Occasionally we have a client who loves to share with us, and if that is the case, the photos and info are referenced with each house plan. We are grateful for the photos that we do have that our clients have generously sent.

A variation of our Northern Lights constructed in 1989 was published in several magazines. The owner has sent us a letter which you may read.

Have you ordered the study plan for the house you are interested in? They are larger drawings and most show furniture placement, all four elevations, and often times much more, depending upon the drawings that the original client requested. Each house plan has a study plan listed for it. They start at around $60 including shipping.

We also have construction review sets which are more to study the construction aspect of the home, but include the study plan as well. They are a mini set of blueprints minus the custom energy recommendations. They are stamped not for construction. We can credit the price of the Construction Review Sets, which start at around $200, to blueprint and other complete house plan orders. (Sorry, new do not credit the cost of study plan orders alone.) Please visit our ordering page for more information.

We have rotating 3-D models of the exterior of our Solstice and Maple Grove homes available. (You can order the models using our  shopping cart. Click on the house plan name, then scroll to the bottom for 3D model of these homes).

A few of our house plans (and those designed by others) have been on the national tour of solar homes in October, and this would be the best way to see a passive solar home. Check out www.ases.org and click on "home tours" for more information.

If you have trouble visualizing from floor plans and elevations, we recommend that you hire a local architect to design your house. Many are used to providing additional sketches and detailed assistance during the design phase. Architectural fees are often the same as you would pay a realtor if you were purchasing an equivalently sized home, and our limited service, internet-based design can be less.

And finally, once you become a custom client by at least engaging us in the initial stage of consulting and review of your proposed changes or information for a custom design (this allows us both to see if we are a good client/architect match), we would then consider contacting a previous client for you if there is one nearby that may be willing to open up their home to you.

I would like to see you design smaller (larger, etc.) homes and have told you about this in emails, but I still do not see any plans that fit my needs. Do you not take into consideration what people are asking for?

We get many emails similar to this with requests that are too numerous to list. Every request is valid for that particular client. We do not design a home unless we first have a client. The client's needs come first. If you do not see a plan that incorporates what you would like, it is because no one else has yet asked for that in a plan. Most of our clients began at the same point as you, looking for an existing/stock plan, realizing there wasn't one available, then trusting us to design one for them. If you are interested in our custom design (usually priced less than or equal to realtor fees if you were buying an existing home), then please request our custom design questionnaire.

Can I get a discount on your design fees if I bring in my own drawings - either sketches by hand or from a computer program?

While we can certainly understand your desire to start on the design of your own home, in reality these drawings would actually increase our fees if you insist that we stick to them. There could be an exception to this someday, but we have yet to see one. Here is a response from another firm that posted a very good response to this same question:

A couple times a year, we have clients come in with "designs" that they've created on a $49 CAD program from the local big-box electronics retailer. Some ask for a discount on design fees (we're design-build), but most have abandoned the software after a few clumsy printouts and a couple hours of frustration. Our normal response is to encourage them to continue being excited & involved about the design process, but now to let the experienced professionals take the lead in creating their dream house. We rarely have much use for what these programs spit-out, and never offer to discount our fees. We usually send them over to the local permit dept. for a quick dose of reality from the plans examiner. Not a single client has every complained or walked away. Most gain a better understanding of the complexities of architectural design.

- Ron Danne, AIBD

My favorite plan is no longer listed. What happened to it?

Thanks for noticing that some of our plans are no longer on the main house plan list. We apologize for any inconvenience and do appreciate your interest in that plan especially since one of the reasons we are phasing out some of our plans is due to lack of interest. Please email us with the plan name and we will tell you how to find it on our site as well as let you know why it was being phased out. We will most likely continue to make it available throughout 2004 or longer if we get more interest in it. Still, we realize that the plan may suit your needs in light of the below issues, and in that case, we are happy to sell you the plan.

As a rule, we are phasing out some of our plans to make room for better ones. The plans that we are phasing out usually fall into two or more of the following categories:

1. Older plan that no longer met our current drawing standards
2. Unpopular plan as indicated by sales/li>

3. Too similar to another plan and this caused confusion/li>

4. Low percentage of south glass (often because the first floor was large or the house was angled to the sun)/li>

5. S.F. was higher than sustainable building guidelines of s.f. per bedroom (see list on custom services page)/li>

6. Designed to be placed at a 45 degree angle to the sun (there is no margin for error in locating the house, especially in climates with summers that require air conditioning)/li>

I noticed that some of your plans are designed to sit at an angle to the sun with two walls facing south—one southeast and one southwest. Why is that?

Those plans were designed for lots that are angled to the sun. It was impossible to make a house with a long east-west axis fit on the site. You should select a plan that is designed to sit at a 45 degree angle only when your land is so tight that no other plan will fit, as there is some energy compromise in terms of less solar gain and possible afternoon overheating in the summer.  You must be certain you can layout the house taking into account magnetic north (we provide that info with blueprint orders as well as other energy recommendations to make the best of the situation).

We would like to have you convert a plan to ICF walls and have the plan adjusted for our location. We'd also like to use the master bath from another plan. How involved is this?

We have changed the outside walls of other plans to ICF. Each plan is different and not until we get into it, can we tell exactly what the implications would be as our first choice is to leave the exterior dimensions the same to stay within the 2' framing which is best for the roof framing to avoid waste. Some people just expand out, but that throws off the roof framing from the 2' increments. The windows also are affected by the ICF so we take a close look at that area - esp. the south wall. Still that is sometimes a field change direct from our plans if you felt comfortable having your builder do that and if your building inspector would allow.

Of course you can have a local design professional make the changes too working from our CAD files and that is appropriate if you also needed other changes to adapt the plan to any unusual building code requirements as our plans are not designed for the extremes of conditions such as earthquakes, expansive soils, high winds, or high snow loads. (You might want to take the Construction Review Set to your building inspection department, builder, and/or local engineer.) To have a set of plans designed for all extremes would make the house over designed and therefore very expensive to build. A structural engineer from your area should review the plans anyway and that is why sometimes clients order the CAD files instead of blueprints and have us sent them directly to the engineer. Changing just the master bath is usually not that involved, so just sketch out what you would want or send us a list of your ideas and we'll come up with the best layout.

The adjustments for location are done with both CAD file and blueprint orders as part of our Custom Energy Recommendations that are included with orders for blueprints and CAD files. You may want to see the information in our Custom Changes section and request our Custom Changes Questionnaire that further explains the fees and process if you want us to make the changes.

Buiding Codes, CAD files & Engineers

We receive inquiries as to whether or not our plans are suitable (without further modifications) for a particular location. The answer is usually they might be, but that a local structural engineer must first review the plans for conformance to local conditions and local codes. They can recommend whether you need to increase or decrease the requirements of the drawings. With the extremes of snow loads, earthquakes, high winds, and unstable soils, it would be cost prohibitive to design a home that met all of the possible extreme conditions. This is usually true of any set of house plans and not just ours. Even if a location has adopted the new International Residential Code which we use as a guide in our newer designs, there could be local modifications and additions to it.

Usually the structural engineer (one with a PE – Professional Engineer - license and seal) can review the plans and attach any recommendations in the form of 8.5x11 notes to supplement the drawings. So far we do not know of any of our plans that would not work with this process. Other times the client has ordered the CAD (computer aided design) files instead of blueprints and had the engineer make the additional notes right on the drawings as the local building inspection department may require that. Sometimes nothing else may be needed – the contractor would need only to follow the local building code that is full of the additional information needed to build a house. If you are in any area that has no building codes, the specs that come with our drawings still specify which one for you to get and suggest that your builder follow. Also, as we do not have a structural engineer on staff and even our custom designs must also have a local structural engineer review the plans although our preference is to work along with one during the custom process. This is good insurance for your house and the fee even when combined with ours usually still adds up to less than the realtors fee if you were buying an existing home.

Architects by law are not allowed to do engineering work such as structural, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC (heating and air conditioning). If an architect does provide those services or drawings, they are most likely are subbing out that work to engineers licensed in the state where the house is to be built. For most homes built, all but the most complex and large residences have the plumbing and HVAC work as well as electrical circuiting design performed by the builder's subcontractors as they do the construction. The ideal situation would be to hire an engineer licensed in your state to not only add detailed structural drawings to our set of plans (CAD files would most likely be the easiest), but also design the plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning, but since the costs for this extra work can be high and it is not the norm in the house building industry, it is seldom done. Since engineers are also trained in different disciplines, it may be difficult to find one trained in all engineering aspects which then means you must work with either several engineers or a large engineering firm that has all on staff. Often the larger firms do not accept residential work and if so, will only work through architects. The usual alternative is then to have just a structural engineer involved, and to have the home owner and builder share liability by having the builder's subs do the plumbing, HVAC, and electrical engineering.

What drawings are included with orders for Blueprints, CAD Files, and Erasable Vellums?

Please see the description drop down box for each house plan for the drawings that are included with each house plan order as they vary quite a bit based on what our original client requested. Most of the drawings are limited in nature as is the case with other stock house plans. (Commercial projects and high-end residential homes drawings can have much more drawings and the price for such increases proportionately.) The house plans are designed to be built by a knowledgeable builder and will not contain all of the details necessary for construction. The plans are designed to be used along with the building codes, which address the other construction details, but there is no substitute for an experienced builder that can work out all of the other details. We have made our Construction Review Sets available so that if you have any questions about the construction drawings that you would be receiving, that you can explore them prior to placing a more expensive order.

We suggest ordering the Construction Review Set if you have concerns prior to ordering Construction Drawings - Blueprints, Erasable Vellums, and CAD files. The review sets (stamped not for construction) are similar to the full orders although we often update and change our plans somewhat. There are also specs and custom energy recommendations that are attached to the cover of the full sets and not the construction review sets.

Regarding engineering drawings, the schematic electrical is already included in many plans (see list with each plan). Circuiting is not since we do not have an electrical engineer on staff. Plumbing nor HVAC we do not provide, as we do not have a mechanical engineer on staff. In addition, a local structural engineer must review the plans for conformance to your area and provide additional engineering usually in the form of 8.5x11 information, but sometimes in the form of drawings. (Those in areas that need a lot more engineering – areas with high seismic activity, high winds, high snow loads, or unstable soils – usually order the CAD files so that the engineers can add their information directly to the drawings.)

If you want more details than the set of drawings comes with, please ask prior to placing your order for Blueprints or CAD Files and if our schedule allows we may be able to provide them. If you need more extensive drawings, it would be best to order our CAD files and have a local designer or architect along with their engineers add the extra sheets. Full service architectural services do include the engineering drawings and that could be where the confusion comes in. The fees for custom architectural services that would include that and much more all the way through construction overseeing would range from 10-15% of construction costs. Sorry, but with the demand of our limited service architectural work, we no longer offer full service architectural. Feel free to send in a list of questions at the time you place an order for blueprints, CAD files, or erasable vellums and if it is not too extensive, the architect will answer your questions or address your concerns in the custom energy specs.

We live in Canada and were wondering if your plans are designed for Canada?

Response from Sun Plans architect Debbie Coleman: While I was teaching a passive solar workshop in Ottawa, I became much more aware of the Canadian building industry. The other professionals that I met with there indicated that they did not see problems with builders using our plans as most places in Canada use the imperial system anyway and the builders and homeowners continue to order house plans from other US companies.Our custom energy recommendations adapt the insulation values to your location in Canada, but this is not done until you place an order for blueprints, erasable vellums, or CAD files. You may feel more comfortable ordering the Construction Review Set for the plan you are interested in and running it by your builder and inspector first. (The price is deducted from future blueprint, vellum or CAD file orders.) Also, even for locations in the U.S., we recommend a local structural engineer review the plans for your area as it is impossible for us to design a house that meets all codes. Some cities even have their own variation of a building code. A house designed for all extreme conditions (high snow, high wind, expansive soils, earthquakes) would cost a fortune to build. People sometimes order our CAD files and have us send them directly by email to the structural engineer so that he may make any changes and additions to our plans. The engineer may also make design changes for you too as we give a one-time copyright release.

Questions in General: We would like to know what you think about geothermal heat pumps, SIP panels, solar panels, a new insulation, etc. (you fill in the blank as the subjects are endless) Have you ever designed such a home using this technology?

Debbie (the architect who is involved with at least the first stage of all of our custom services) is used to doing all kinds of research once you become a custom client and I'm sure she would be willing to look into your questions and many more. Often our services involve as much research as they do actual drawing. I can't say for sure about your question, but clients often send her links to research and she often gives opinions on the mechanical systems although since we are not mechanical engineers, we do not actually design them. A simple yes or no cannot usually be given for most questions and therefore our policy is not to do consulting until you become a client.

We can also provide additional consulting even if you just order a stock plan unaltered. In that case, please send in your list of questions along with your order and if the questions are something that can be addressed while she prepares the custom energy recommendations, then there may be no additional fee.

Most people who want consulting, actually first go through the Custom Changes process where she looks at your proposed ideas in relation to that particular plan. When you get to the stage of having narrowed down a plan to one or two, please request our Custom Changes Questionnaire. Currently the minimum fee with that is $295. The consulting may or may not turn into actual custom changes to that plan based on numerous reasons, but includes assessing whether continuing would be a good client-architect match.

Most of our clients who ask very detailed questions end up with a custom design after they try unsuccessfully to put their life into a house we designed for someone else. (Sort of like Cinderella's sister trying to make the shoe fit…) Please visit our custom services page for more information.

Do your plans &/or energy recommendations suggest radiant floor heating? Is this compatible with your passive solar design?

Since most of our custom design clients (who we first designed the plan for) want to at least consider radiant floor heating, most of our plans mention it as an option in both the drawings and specs which even have a list of radiant floor heating resources. Sun Plans does not actually provide the mechanical engineering of the system, but our drawings have notes allowing for it as an option should the client choose. It can be added to any plan and often by the contractor in the field or certainly by a local design professional if you order our CAD files or erasable vellums.

What is the definition of "Plan Complexity?" I realize the obvious, but would like to hear from you group just how or if further "complexity" translates into increased construction costs or are we just speaking of increases in time spent on the blueprints (and yes, I know that increases costs as well). Thanks! Jim

Thanks for pointing out that we had not described the plan complexity. We have just added a description at the bottom of this page: http://www.sunplans.com/html/list.php3 that described the items in our list. We created that category as a rough guide since many people were contacting us wanting to know which were the simplest of our plans to construct. It does not relate to the complexity of blueprints as most of our plans are at the same standard now anyway, but we appreciate your awareness of the fact that drawings can vary in complexity too! In the extremes from simple plans by draftsman & designers, to complex plans created by full-service architectural design, our construction drawings would fall into the average category - a good basic set without the expense of extensive detailing.

Why don't you have any flat roofed, southwestern style plans when the architect used to live in Arizona? (the same question could be why don't you have any Swiss Chalets since she used to live there too...etc.) Of course, by now we may, so please browse our plans.

We do not design homes until we have clients with a wish list and there can be just about any item or style on that list for their custom home. We design what our custom clients ask us for. If someone requests a flat roofed adobe style house, we design one. If they request a straw bale, we design one. If they request a modern house with a steel frame, we design one. So the answer as to why we do not have a particular style of home is because no one has asked us to design one, or if they have, as is the case with southwestern style homes, we do not necessarily put all of our plans on the web site. If we think other people would also like the design that we arrive at, we may then post it to our web site. Also, the plans on the web site are only the plans that have been designed since 1990 and many are much newer than that as (unlike some house plan companies) we do not sell older plans.

What is a daylight cooling chimney? I see them indicated on some of your plans.

Daylight cooling chimneys, or similar sounding description in OUR plans are a space framed and insulated between homes with truss-framed roofs in one story homes. They allow both daylight in and hot air out. The daylight into the center of the home brightens that area of the floor plan. The hot air exiting maximizes the season for passive cooling. An operable window (manual or electronic – whatever your mfg. can supply) or an insulated wall mounted fan lets hot air out. Daylight cooling chimneys work best on one story homes with no basements since they have the least amount of stack effect – distance between the lowest entry and highest exit of air flow.

Our Construction Review Sets have more information on simple construction items like Daylight Cooling Chimneys that are designed into our homes where the original client was either not going to use mechanical air conditioning, or either wanted to maximize their passive cooling season. If you like one of our plans with a truss framed roof that did not have a daylight cooling chimney, then let us know after you place your order for Blueprints, Vellums, or CAD files, and we can makes some notes about adding one in the Custom Energy Recommendations that accompany those orders. If you are considering custom design, we may or may not recommend one based on the other many factors that go into the design of a home.

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