Clean Energy Tips

TIP #5: New Superwindows use two or three layers of glass, a low-e coating and are filled with argon gas. They can be eight times more effective at reducing heat loss than traditional single pane windows. bullet

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Passive Solar Design

Passive solar home design utilizes the shape, orientation and characteristics of the building to capture and hold heat when it is desired or to repel heat when not desired. Utilizing traditional building elements like insulation, south-facing glass, floor mass and trombe walls (a vertical, heat-storing wall situated to collect UV rays during colder months), these buildings create climate cooperation, reducing the needs for traditional heating and cooling.

Glass technology has improved greatly in the last forty years, offering options like double- and triple-pane windows, low-emissivity coatings and gas-filled windows, each of them having their own best application. South-facing windows take solar warmth into the home and store it in sunlit floors and walls that continue to radiate warmth long after the sun has gone down. Exterior-wall greenhouses also collect solar warmth and act as an insulator between home interiors and outside air.

Summer months require management of interior warmth. There are many design features that can assist the homeowner in maintaining a comfortable interior environment, such as ventilation systems, overhangs, shades and sunspaces that can be closed off from the rest of the house.

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Trombe Walls

The ultimate in simplicity, the trombe wall is thick, positioned to capture direct sun and sometimes painted black to absorb the greatest amount of heat possible. Faced with a pane of glass or plastic glazing, this mass wall banks heat that slowly dissipates into the home during nighttime hours.

Windows

Which window for you? Your solution may be to install windows with a greater capacity to trap warmth. Double- and triple-pane windows both foster heat capture, but each additional pane decreases the amount of light entering the home. Triple-pane windows will be heavier than double- or single-pane windows, and they cost more, but they are excellent choices for northern climes.

Newer solutions include gas-filled and low-emissivity windows. Gas-filled windows have two panes between which argon or krypton gas are trapped. As gas is a poor conductor of heat, less heat escapes through the window. Low-emissivity, or low-E, glass is coated with a film of metallic oxide. This film is great for slowing heat loss, does not impair light flow and has the additional bonus of providing good sound insulation. Additionally, low-E windows can boost solar heat gain in northern climes or, in warmer climates, keep cooling costs down through application of a low-solar gain coating.

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