Are Your New Windows Sustainable?

Posted by: Ken Mariotti

Windmills in the back yard, rain barrels under gutters, and concrete front lawns, it’s looking like more homeowners are joining the sustainability movement. Sometimes these obvious efforts to do the right thing can seem extreme. When it comes to home building or remodeling, sustainability starts by critically thinking about how windows affect a home’s overall climate.

Windows typically comprise 10-25% of a home’s exterior wall area, and in a climate like ours, they can account for 35-50% of the heating and cooling needs of the home.

When you’re ready to remodel or build a new home talk to architects and builders who understand sustainable design and enlist them to help you create a three step balanced approach to sustainability.

            Step One: Start with Design Principles

            Step Two: Select High Performance Windows

            Step Three: Build with Integrity

Design Principles

Marvin Windows

A good architect or designer will focus on your thermal comfort, in our case, living in an extreme climate. A good design reduces the need for heating and air conditioning and uses construction materials, especially windows that help balance the thermal load. In other words, flooring, ceilings, window sizes and framing materials, shading and other choices interact in ways that lower thermal loads. The goal is for your home to require less heating and cooling to maintain comfortable conditions.

Designers who understand these principles will choose designs and products that are best suited for your home. They will orient windows so as to optimize light and the warmth, while neutralizing the suns overall affect on your home’s temperature. For example, sparingly place windows on the east and west facades, and maximize the window placement on the south side of your home. The design will provide natural ventilation by strategically placing windows on both sides of the house to create cross-ventilation or layouts, like ceiling level hoppers that capture cooling breezes in the summer.

High Performance Windows

Marvin Windows for Ventilation

Advances in window technology, such as double pane and low-e coatings, substantially reduce heat loss and control heat gain. The performance contrast between new windows and the original single glass panes that you may have in your old home is drastic. Imagine that all these years, all you had separating you from the Chicago winter was a single pane of quarter-inch glass. Whether you choose wood, fiberglass, vinyl or aluminum, modern window frame conductivity outperforms anything you’ve known before.

Consult the standardized ratings for Solar heat gain coefficients (SHGC) and U-values provided by the NationalFenestration Rating Council (NFRC) and Energy Star Labels, but remember that while ratings are important, they shouldn’t be the driving factor for the window choices. Features like thermal performance can add to condensation problems for instance, so that interior humidity and climate also need to be considered. Don’t rely on one value over all others; rather take the entire balanced design into consideration when choosing new windows.

Build Smart

Marvin Upper Transoms

The success of your design and product choices relies on building and installation techniques. High performance windows need to be installed according to the manufacturer’s instructions so as not to diminish the energy performance, not to mention, damage the window unit or surrounding walls. Homeowners should expect the builder to follow key guidelines to the highest standards.

• Meet all codes
• Properly size rough opening allowing for expansion and movement
• Install window unit level, plumb, and square
• Maintain the continuity of the weather-resistant barrier
• Insulate all voids between the window and wall with expanding foam (minimum rate)
• Maintain the integrity of air and vapor retarders
• Only apply caulks and sealants that are compatible with the substrate

The best measure of sustainability is building something right the first time.

Low-E Gets Personal

Submitted by: Ken Mariotti

Perhaps no term is uttered more frequently, in the world of windows, than Low-E. By now, most people think they know what that means, but few know what it means for their home. This is because continued advances in glazing (glass) technologies allow you, with a little advance planning; select from different Low-E finishes for different windows in your home. With minimal effort your budget will go further and you’ll get a more energy efficient home.

Marvin Windows Gallery

A Northern Climate

In a nutshell, our northern region climate is dominated by heating energy use. Our summers can get hot and humid requiring air conditioning, but heat waves are usually short lived, while winter is cold and long. It’s a straightforward decision to choose windows with a higher SHGC (solar heat gain co-efficient), which means the window, will reflect heat back into the home, collecting more solar heat.

Window Orientation

In addition to our northern climate, you want to consider the orientation of the windows in your home. Specifying Low-E requirements for different windows allows you to maximize your home’s comfort and spend your money wisely. In other words, it’s no longer, one size fits all, and instead Low-E comes in a sophisticated array of options to meet your exact needs.

Here are simple northern region strategies to consider when planning a remodel or new home.

South facing windows: Choose a high SHGC glazing – above 0.40. South windows are a good source of passive heat in winter, but if you use this strategy you also need a roof overhang that provides shading in the summer.

West facing windows:  Choose a low SHGC glazing to reduce much unwanted afternoon summer heat gain. Overhangs don’t work well against the low evening sun.

Marvin Windows Gallery

East facing windows:  Like west facing windows, keep the size of these windows to a minimum in order to control unwanted solar gain or loss. Most people select a low SHGC, however some prefer a high SHGC glazing as a good way to warm cool mornings.

North facing windows: Minimal contribution to the temperature control of your home’s interior.

In closing, once you’ve arrived at your overall requirements, you can further specify select Low-E options that will reduce fading, increase your visible light, improving insulating values or lowering condensation problems, to name just a few.

3 Things to Know About Passive Solar Heat

Posted by: Ken Mariotti

Soaring costs for heating and cooling our homes, energy efficiency becomes a priority. Homes are becoming better insulated and sealed allowing the heating and cooling systems to operate at peak efficiencies, reducing usage and costs. The next leap in efficient home design and maintenance is maximizing passive solar heating and natural ventilation. Windows play an invaluable role in the performance of our houses and today’s window options can provide a custom energy efficient solution for your unique house. 

Wikipedia

As a child, before air conditioning was built into most homes, I remember summertime when my mother would open all the windows at night or the very early morning to cool off the house. Then, about 10:00 am she’d close them and pull the drapes to keep the house cool the entire day. Granted the house was dark and stuffy, but compared to the 100º temperatures outside it was a haven.

Today we hear about home energy assessments to measure airtightness, or dual pane low-e windows to manage solar heat, or low U factors to measure performance, but do we really know what these mean for our own home?

Most people don’t know how to remodel or design a new home applying energy efficient principles. While there are multiple things that go into making a house energy efficient, there are three basic principles when selecting your windows: the orientation, the glass, and ventilation.

Window Orientation

If you are remodeling your home or designing a new one the sizes and locations of windows should be based on the cardinal directions of the house – north, south, east, and west.

North/south oriented windows are the best option for visual and thermal comfort and accommodate larger glass openings without over heating, compared to east/west facing windows.

• North-facing windows admit even, natural light with little glare and almost no unwanted summer heat gain

• South-facing windows provide the most winter sunlight but little direct sun during the summer

East/West facing windows receive direct daylight at certain times of the day, which is often preferred for breakfast rooms or sunrooms and should be equipped with shading options.

• East-facing windows provide morning sun, but sunlight entering at low angles often leads to blinds down and lights on and offers little heating in the winter

• West-facing windows allow the afternoon and summer evening light to lengthen the day, may require blinds to cut the glare and invites little heat in winter

Glass

Robert G McArthur Studios

Selecting the right glass depends on the location of your windows and the geographical region of your home. Low-e has become a universal term for energy efficient coating applied to the window glass. Actually, advances in glass coatings and new regional energy codes, Low-e options can be customized to your home’s requirements. Whether you need high light and low heat or greater protection from fading – there’s a Low-e for your requirement. Next week’s blog will explain your glass options in detail.

Ventilation

When remodeling or designing a new home select window styles and window locations that optimize ventilation for added comfort and efficiency.

Fresh air circulation makes a huge difference in your well being while indoors. Educate your self on the many options including skylights with automatic sensors for opening and closing or awning transom windows above interior doors to circulate fresh air throughout your home.

With so many options available to customize window energy performance throughout your home it can be confusing. Remember this, select the right type of window style for the window location and specify the finish and size of the glass. If you do these things, you can improve the energy efficiency and comfort of your home.

When you’re planning a remodel don’t get caught in the trap of assigning less importance to these aspects of your home. Instead, know that there are unlimited possibilities for managing the light and climate in your home and build these options into your plans.

Traditional Homes Mix With Modern Building Materials

Post by: Ken Mariotti

Source: dailyhomedecorideas.com

Some of the most beautiful neighborhoods around Chicago and its suburbs are the old tree lined streets of traditional homes. Famous for it’s historic architecture Chicago reflects the best of classic homes through the years. Prairie, craftsman, Victorian, farmhouse, brick row houses, limestone mansions – we’ve got it all. If you love the traditional styles that have defined our beautiful area, but want modern functionality – learn how you can mix traditional styles with modern products.

The benefits of remodeling or building a new home using modern windows, skylights, doors, siding, sunrooms and other building products are quite simple; ease of use, better performance, lower utility costs and less maintenance.

Ease of use and better performance

Today’s products are produced using new technologies that make life easier. For example, built in and auto controlled window treatments can be preset to open and close at optimal times. They are simple to use, while maximizing daylight and minimizing unwanted heat gain or loss. There are multi-point door locking systems that engage automatically when the door is closed.

Lower utility costs

Without argument, low E dual and triple pane insulated glass lowers costs over the length of owning your home. Other improvements like insulated oversized glass, gives you more natural daylight to keep your home warm and reduces your need for electric lighting. Modern skylights with special coatings and ventilation are now built in new forms that can direct light and control ventilation in a room.

Source: Velux

Less maintenance

Whether you purchase natural wood windows or synthetic vinyl windows, more than ever before, today’s finishes have a higher resiliency to weathering, mold or mildew. Modern windows tilt inward for easy cleaning and offer water spot resistant surfaces for skylights and hard to reach picture or awning windows.

Traditional exterior and transitional interior

One way to combine the desire for a traditional home with an equal desire to use modern materials is by blending classic style with a few contemporary elements. Keep the traditional exterior façade, while using more contemporary materials for the interior. For example you can choose that classic red brick Georgian exterior and add more windows and glass patio doors, rather than the traditional small and sparse windows. Select traditional brick moldings made of low maintenance composites or vinyl around the windows, rather than the higher maintenance wood choice.

Source: Marvin

The interior can be less traditional with an open floor plan that invites in more natural light. Create entire window walls without completely violating the traditional style of your home by using multiple French doors with glass transoms for a floor to ceiling light wall. Modern folding doors are an alternative if selected in dark hardwoods for a more traditional look. And replacing stationary transoms with remote controlled awnings will help ventilate your home creating cross breezes that will cut down on energy consumption.

You can enjoy the easy living that comes with an energy efficient and low maintenance home and have the everlasting beauty of a traditional home. Woodland offers a broad selection of styles for windows, doors, siding and sunrooms with state-of-the-art products from major manufacturers like Marvin, Andersen, Pella and Velux. Let us help you create a traditional look using modern materials.