apartments with limited sun light

Not good.

The lack of light is depressing. Literally. It is not worth any savings in rent or price. Last month I rented a friends apt to camp out until I move into a long term rental in March. The apt is perfectly lovely but it is a pied a terre and doesn't have light. Plus one room faced a building and we had to keep the shades closed. My husband and my cat became depressed. After 3 weeks, I finally had to find a new temporary rental. The new apartment is filled with light and a beautiful view of the Empire State Building. The cat is ecstatic. It makes a difference in every aspect of your being -- spiriitual , psychological, emotional. You need light just like you need water. I can't say enough about it. Don't move into an apartment without good natural light.

I'm not someone who is a sun worshipper, but living in an apartment with limited sunlight can be difficult. I lived in a rental apartment where most of the windows faced a small enclosed courtyard and it was a big mistake. Even having many lights in a room doesn't seem to compensate for lack of sunshine. It's ok for a short term rental, but I wouldn't think that it would be quite in terms of resale for a purchase.

good instead of quite

It doesn't have to be great, blinding light. I have lived in a couple of very bright apartments that only showcased my lack of interest in housekeeping. But a dark courtyard-facing apartment? Very, very depressing. Maybe if only one of the rooms or the bedrooms are dark. Living areas need to have good light.

Everything in life is a compromise - our current apt has great space, lots of storage ... and faces another building across the street. We aren't on a low floor but we don't have the gorgeous unobstructed views of higher floors. We couldn't afford this much space with a great view and we picked our priorities like every buyer does.

My only negative to south facing bathed-in-sunlight apartments is that they can be blazing hot in the Summer, even with AC running nonstop.

There's a happy medium, of course. I think it all depends on what any one feature is worth to you and which features you may compromise on to get those you value most.

Scoots - agreee with you about really strong light - our previous apartment had a great view west towards the Empire State Building - which we never really saw in daylight hours during the spring and summer because the sun coming into the apartment was blazing hot

I'm not sure what your question is. If it is "how important is direct sunlight" in an apartment, then I'd say it may be an issue for some, but not a major issue for many SO LONG AS the is ample bright daylight in the apartment even if the sun doesn't pour in directly. My apartment is very bright but the sun makes puddles on the floor only briefly each day. None the less, it is airy, bright and quite well lit. certainly there is no need for lights to be on during daylight hours. Perhaps that's a good test of how bright a place actually is: how many lights do you need to turn on during the day time?

If your question is, "how important is daylight" of any kind, then my answer is exceedingly important to the point that the price of the apartment will be significantly and negatively impacted by a lack of light and your pool of buyers will be smaller since many people will reject a dark apartment outright. It is, quite frankly, depressing to live in the dark.

I think another question that should go with how much light is there, is "Can you see the sky?" I personally find it quite disturbing not to be able to see the sky from windows. Even if the sun isn't pouring in, being able to at least see blue sky from the rooms helps a lot.

When you visit an apartment, also keep in mind what time of day and what time of year it is.

Our rental is on a lower floor with northern exposure facing an enclosed courtyard. On the June morning we saw it, everything was beautiful -- nice light, trees outside the window, ivy covered walls across the courtyard, birds chirping, etc.

I swear that June mornings are the ONLY times this damn apartment ever gets any sun. This time of year it is flat-out depressing. No sunlight, branches outside the window, gross ivy vines everywhere, full view of all of the neighbors.

I won't make this mistake again.

You can't have everything in NYC but I have a couple questions/observations and wonder what people think.

- I've found a cookie cutter southern facing non-corner unit to be overwhelmed by sun. In winter it can come in low and blaze the place. In summer it can bake you too. You may end up having to have curtains partially or fully drawn. For less hours of the day, a western facing apartment can have the same issues. Being boiled alive in something southern or western exposed can ruin what would otherwise be a really nice summer afternoon...

- You can't always have it but a corner exposure which is se or sw can allow you to have some windows completely open during the heavy sun hours.

- I haven't had much experience in northern exposure apartments and I wonder if it would bother me. I think Kyle's points highlight the key issues on this...is it dark, do you need lights.

- I kind of like the idea of a rear ground floor apartment with a garden,,,but this thread is making me think it might depressingly dark, but I guess that depends on the exposure it has.

jim - northern exposure is fine, in fact nice steady light, as long as it's not blocked. After all, artists' very often preferred studios with northern light as it provided clear, steady light.

"I've found a cookie cutter southern facing non-corner unit to be overwhelmed by sun. In winter it can come in low and blaze the place. In summer it can bake you too. You may end up having to have curtains partially or fully drawn. For less hours of the day, a western facing apartment can have the same issues. Being boiled alive in something southern or western exposed can ruin what would otherwise be a really nice summer afternoon..."

You need to install 3M's Scotchtint window film: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Windows/Doors/Product-Information/Products/Protective-Privacy-Products/Scotchtint-Window-Film/

I've noticed that many prewar apartments do seem dark in some rooms, especially the bedroom(s) if there is only one window and it's fairly small or partially blocked by an A/C unit. I've tended to avoid looking at prewar apartments on lower floors for that reason.

I've noticed the same thing of many POSTwars.

Maybe we should avoid both prewar AND postwar buildings for this reason.

Maybe we should all move to a nice beach community and forget about living in NYC. I know I'm ready.

Matt, are you using the window tint? I was considering it for my fully-south facing apt, but a scientist told me that blocking UV will stop fading, but won't block the boiling radiant heat. I'm currently using black-out curtains, but I would like additional options.

"Matt, are you using the window tint? I was considering it for my fully-south facing apt, but a scientist told me that blocking UV will stop fading, but won't block the boiling radiant heat. I'm currently using black-out curtains, but I would like additional options."

As far as 3M's products are concerned, the scientist is flat-out wrong.

I had the window tint installed precisely because all of my windows are south-facing and the entire apartment felt like a hothouse well into November. It filters out 98% of the UV rays, and 68% of the heat-producing infrared rays. The temperature difference from the tinting alone is almost 20 degrees.

And you barely notice the tint.

interesting..I am learning something everyday. I was about to buy an apartment and one reason I didn't was the southern exposure (I vowed a few years ago not to live through that again; i hate having to feel like you need to have the curtains drawn all the afternoon). With my new found knowledge of soundproofing, more things can be worked around

On the southern exposure thing -- Are we talking blazing heat even with modern energy efficient windows? Or is this only a problem with older windows?

Southern exposure isn't just a temperature thing. When there is tons of light pouring in you have to draw the curtains, whereas at an oblique angle, or northern you would be able to keep the curtains open in the afternoon. This problem is worse in an apartment than in houses often because houses have sort of overhangs sometimes, or awnings, or the room is bigger and so sun doesn't go directly in to the whole room.

Seems many who buy them are pre-construction buyers who were unaware.

Lol that this started with a negative commentary on apts with limited light and turned into how one should never buy a south facing full sun apartment. ;) SE, you never cease to amaze me.

"On the southern exposure thing -- Are we talking blazing heat even with modern energy efficient windows? Or is this only a problem with older windows?"

Yes, even with "modern, energy-efficient windows".

The heat is coming from the SUN. "Energy-efficient" windows add an extra pane of glass to create a buffer of air inside the window unit. This works as an effective insulation against outside air temperature only ... not the sun's rays.

Not to mention frying alive your furniture, expensive electronics, books, etc..

And RUGS!

We spend thousands for beautiful colorful rugs at ABC Carpet and Home, and let them lie, unprotected, in the sun's blazing rays.

LOL...how could you NOT want southern exposure. This is a wacky conversation. Yeah, it fades furniture - faded one of our armchairs within 3 months of being here, but come on! All else being equal you would really pay for LESS light? Not me, but to each his own. We have 3 brs, 2 baths, and Lr/Dr all with southern exposure on a high floor. It's divine, but i don't shop at ABC Carpet and Home ;).

"All else being equal you would really pay for LESS light?"

Pay attention, uwsmom. We're not saying we want less "light" -- we're trying to cut down on the amount of harmful UV rays and heat-producing infrared rays.

uwsmom. .. I used to think Southern exposure was great, but I've sort of changed my mind, unless you are someplace where it is feasible to have awnings (a friend put those up in his penthouse rooftop place). Big caveat: if you have a corner then it's great because then you can leave the curtains open where there is no sun.

Damaging furniture or electronic equipment isn't actually such a minor issue . I don't really care about the furniture, personally, but some do, but I do have expensive paintings and stereo speakers that would be damaged by sun.

Some of this has to do with apartment size -- in 2000sf apartment there is probably less likelihood of things crammmed up by the window.

Thanks for the info Matt. I love the bright southern sun, but it is currently roasting in here even with the heat turned off. We went from little sun in our old place to full sun and it is a bit overwhelming. I am terrified of summer.