Hello Brent, In either case, or with John's suggestion, be sure to take as built measurements for either the roof angle or the declination of your gables. The orientation of the foundations shot when laying out a building usually do not carry through the multiple layers built on top of it during normal construction.
I just designed a large vertical sundial to be mounted on a dead straight NSEW oriented building, and the wall had "drifted" in orientation by a fraction of a degree (0.8° E of S) by the time construction had been finished..not much by normal building standards but a lot by gnomonic standards, especially with a large dial face. Always check the as built situation in the field before doing the final layout for a sundial - you might be surprised what you find! Best, Jim Tallman www.artisanindustrials.com [email protected] This message is being sent remotely as I am currently out of the studio. Please excuse any further delay in response. -----Original Message----- From: Brent <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 10:20 AM To: Sundial List <[email protected]> Subject: Sundial house Hello again; I have the opportunity to design some ultra low cost housing for slum resettlement. Just because they are low cost doesn't mean they can't be cool places to live. here are a few ideas I have: 1. I could orient the houses to true north. The east or west walls could have a long horizontal window that could act as a sunrise/sunset calendar. The window could have a center mullion that would cast a shadow on the wall around the room which could be marked as a calendar. 2. Orient the gables north and south and leave the gable ends exposed with no overhanging eaves and set vertical dials on the north or south or both. Maybe I could make a stencil or two and simply paint on dial faces. Or show the new owners how to do that and let them mark their own. I would appreciate any other ideas. They just need to be inexpensive and simple to use. Here is a cool saying that seems appropriate: Sol Lucet Omnibus The Sun Shines for Everyone brent --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
