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Re: Solar Gains Minimal Posted by Snowmobile [Email]  (#686)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Snowmobile) on Sat, 15 Nov 2014 15:27:31
In Reply to: Re: Solar Gains Minimal, dtechakacheaptech, Sat, 15 Nov 2014 14:10:14 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
In your situation, window replacement makes sense. If you want quality and good energy efficiency, I would look at fibreglass windows. There are several Canadian manufacturers that do about the highest R values anywhere and consider solar gain coeffecients for exposure. All will ship to the US. Examples are Dorwin, Inline, Cascadia, Thermotech, Fibertec. I believe Marvin markets one of these manufacturer's products as a separate fiberglass line (or perhaps glazes extrusions from Inline? I forget). Anyway, just cut and paste into the Google machine to get the websites. Fibreglass is stronger than vinyl, so they can make the frames stronger, or more open and better insulated. It also has a closer coefficient of thermal expansion to glass.
WRT solar gain - I disagree with Brian. It makes a huge difference. You can pick the coatings so that they are reflective on the west and east side (especially west!!). You want to maximize glazing on the south exposure. East and west always get low angle sun so bad news in summer. However, South gets low angle in winter but not in summer. You almost don't need to close blinds to the south in summer during the day because there is very little penetration depth. This time of the year, the sun reaches deeply and will heat the floor even if it is only for a few hours, it does help quite a bit. More so if your house is well insulated. There are homes that rely significantly/primarily on this!
Actually, much of this is very calculable and if you google it, you can find degree days, solar angles/days, etc for most locations. Obviously if one lives in a climate that gets a lot of cloud (eg coastal) the effects are less, but in Colorado, you should have lots of winter sun.
Personally, I would avoid vinyl unless you are very cost sensitive. Wood I would also be very careful of. You can get wood trim for fibreglass windows. I would be very leery of Pella, and Anderson is not much better. I have seen lots of problems with Pella wood windows. Of those sorts of big name brands, I would be more inclined to look at Marvin. But the Canadian Fibreglass manufacturers are more energy efficient, and not necessarily much more costly. Not necessarily perfect aesthetically for a historic home, but otherwise, there are a lot of pros to going that route.
good luck!
->Posting last edited on Sat, 15 Nov 2014 15:28:01.
, Sun, 16 Nov 2014 10:57:14, Sun, 16 Nov 2014 12:11:12, Sat, 15 Nov 2014 15:14:39, Sat, 15 Nov 2014 15:30:02, Sat, 15 Nov 2014 13:59:04, Mon, 17 Nov 2014 10:24:55, Sat, 15 Nov 2014 15:27:31 <-- Viewing This Message
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