How thoughtful architectural details can dramatically reduce your energy bills while enhancing your home's character
At Metters and Wellby, we've spent over 40 years designing homes that seamlessly blend contemporary aesthetics with practical functionality throughout Cornwall and Devon. One architectural detail we particularly champion is the overhanging roof—not just for its striking visual appeal, but for its remarkable ability to reduce energy costs year-round.
Roof eaves can act as natural sunshades, reducing the amount of sunlight that hits your windows and walls directly. This, in turn, helps regulate the indoor temperature, making your home more energy efficient. During Cornwall's warmest months, a well-designed overhang can reduce cooling costs during hot weather by providing crucial shade to your windows and exterior walls.
The mechanism is elegantly simple: During hot summer months, roof eaves block direct sunlight from streaming through upper windows, which reduces indoor temperatures naturally. This passive cooling effect means your air conditioning system doesn't have to work as hard to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures, directly translating to lower energy bills.
While summer shading is impressive, the winter benefits are equally valuable. In the winter, roof overhangs can also protect your home from cold winds, further enhancing energy efficiency. The overhangs act as a buffer against harsh weather, helping to maintain your home's thermal envelope and reduce heat loss.
For those building energy-efficient homes in Cornwall, overhanging roofs are fundamental to passive solar design. An overhang, or some sort of solar control or solar shading, is a crucial element in passive solar design because it blocks the sun's heat energy when it is not desired.
The beauty lies in the seasonal adaptation: Because the sun travels different paths across the sky in the winter (low) and summer (high) time, an overhang can be constructed to utilise and manipulate the heat energy from the sun. This means your home naturally stays cooler in summer while maximising beneficial solar gain during winter months.
Thoughtfully designed overhangs also support compliance with the Approved Document Part O (Thermal Overheating) regulations introduced in 2022, which aim to limit excess solar gain and reduce internal temperatures in new dwellings. By incorporating features like roof eaves or shading devices, your design can meet these requirements more naturally—helping to prevent overheating without over-reliance on mechanical cooling systems. Overhangs are therefore not just a design preference, but part of a wider regulatory approach to achieving thermal comfort and energy efficiency in modern homes.
Energy efficiency: By providing extra shade, sunlight entering the home's interior is reduced, cutting cooling costs. Protection from elements: Like umbrellas, eaves divert water, snow, and ice further away from the home. This protection extends the lifespan of your exterior materials, reducing maintenance costs over time.
Homes with beautifully designed and functional roof overhangs often have higher property values. Potential buyers appreciate the added benefits these overhangs bring in terms of aesthetics, weather protection, and energy efficiency.
When designing overhangs for Cornwall homes, our team considers several factors:
As a small team of qualified architects, architectural technologists, and Passivhaus designers, we understand that every detail matters when creating energy-efficient homes that suit the Cornish way of life. Our comprehensive approach to overhang design considers:
The initial investment in well-designed overhangs pays dividends through:
If you're considering a new build or renovation project in Cornwall, the integration of thoughtful architectural details like overhanging roofs should be considered from the earliest design stages. Our Project Feasibility Appraisal process helps identify how these features can be optimally incorporated into your specific site and budget.
The combination of contemporary design, energy efficiency, and respect for Cornwall's natural surroundings creates homes that are not only beautiful but also practical and sustainable for the long term.
