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Home Window Glazings Mean More Daylight

In the past, effectively improving the quality and quantity of natural light in your home often meant adding skylights or windows--but at the expense of energy loss or heat gain. But now glazing technologies have begun to catch up with the energy efficiency movement. Today you can use more glazing to capture more light without yesterday's heat loss or heat gain problems.

The good news is that many new types of high-performance glazing have been developed in recent years that make it possible to use a lot more glass while minimizing heat loss, heat gain and glare.

If you're building a house, remodeling or replacing windows, you can choose from a wide range of options, selecting glazing best suited to a particular window.

The trick with glazing is usually to admit as much light as possible without causing excessive winter heat loss or summer heat gain or glare--the factors that, in the past, have limited window numbers and sizes. Heat moving through windows destroys a building's energy efficiency and wastes our natural resources. In fact, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit research and educational organization that fosters efficient use of resources, more energy is lost through American windows every year than flows through the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

Talk with a window dealer about the specific properties and values available. Generally speaking, if you want to minimize heat transfer, pick high-performance glazing that has a high R-value. For maximum light, choose a type with a high visual light transmittance value or, to cut glare, with a lower light transmittance value. To cut heat gain, select glazing with a high shading coefficient. Glazing with a high UV value will block nearly all furniture-fading ultraviolet rays.

Positioning Windows to Capture Daylight

In the United States, electric lighting consumes about one fourth of all the energy generated. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit research and educational organization that fosters efficient use of resources, this usage equals the energy produced by 170 large powerplants. It only makes sense to take advantage of daylight to provide light and warmth--but this means planning ahead during building or remodeling.

Whether a window faces north, east, south or west makes a big difference in the type of light it receives.

The daylight that enters a building may shine directly from the sun, bounce off of bodies of water, streets, buildings, or other surfaces, or come from the diffuse, day-lit sky. Placing and sizing windows and figuring control measures, such as roof overhangs, requires a clear understanding of the sun's path.

If you want morning sunlight to spray across your breakfast table, your breakfast room window should face east.

The sun's daily east-to-west arc changes throughout the year. At the summer solstice, June 21, the sun rises and sets farthest to the north, which means that it is higher during the day. At the winter solstice, December 21, the sun's arc is at its southern-most position, with a much lower mid-day elevation. The sun's angle at any given time of the day depends on your latitude. The further north you live, the lower the winter sun will be in the southern sky.

Light from the south is bright and direct; solar houses are oriented to the south for maximum heat gain. South-facing windows are often located beneath eaves or roof overhangs that block the high, intense summer sun but allow the warmth of the lower winter sun.

North light, never direct from the sun, has cool, bluish hues because it comes from the sky. Because it's constant, north light is favored for artists' studios and the like.

Western sun can be intense and glaring. Controlling it is more difficult because, as the sun sets, its low angle dips beneath eaves and overhangs. Shades, blinds or glare-resistant glazing are generally required. It's also helpful if deciduous trees are planted on the west side of a house--their spring-and-summer leaves block unwanted heat, then when the leaves drop in the fall, the trees allow the sun's warmth and light.

Be sure any architect or builder you hire will take all of this into account when planning your house's window placement; ask for references and call previous clients.

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