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A Wall of Windows Goes Into the TOH Cambridge

House
Catch up on advances in home-window manufacturing.

By Max Alexander of This Old House magazine

PHOTO BY RUSSELL KAYE

Its 1950 Modern style and backyard expanse of greenery are what make George Mabry's house all
about the windows. Lots of windows. Eighty-one of them, to be exact, including a whole line of oor-to-
ceiling picture windows looking onto the leafy scene out back. "I basically bought the house for the huge
backyard," George says of the sloping one-third-acre lot. "I want to be able to see it from every room."
In that respect, George's homethis season's This Old House television projectis a typical Modern
house. In the middle of the 20th century, Modernist architecture embraced new steel-frame building
techniques, freeing exterior walls from the burden of supporting the roof. That meant the walls could
become curtains of glass, in effect dissolving the barrier between inside and out. The most famous
example of this is Philip Johnson's 1949 Glass House, in New Canaan, Connecticut, in which all four
exterior walls are made of windows.

Though large windows fell out of favor in the energy-conscious 1970s and '80s, today, both the glass
and the frames holding it are much more ef cient. Despite rising fuel costs, homeowners are adding
more glass to homes big and small, whether as part of a remodel, an addition, or all-new construction.
"As the technology gets better, people are feeling less guilty about going with bigger windows," says Will
Ruhl, the architect for the Cambridge, Massachusetts, TV project. "They like having the house
connected to the outside."

Unfortunately, most of this house's large windows and sliding glass doors are the original, half-century-
old, drafty single-pane units and have very little insulating value. They let too much heat blow out in the
winter and roll in during the summerfor low ef ciency in both seasons. Any replacements not only
need to provide better insulation, they also need to protect against the bleaching effects of sunlight on
wood oors, artwork, fabrics, and furniture throughout the house. And they need to ensure privacy
from the road in the front.

It's a lot to ask: endless views without bottomless energy bills, privacy without sacri cing daylight, and
sunshine without fading. But improvements in technologycombined with careful placementare
bringing today's windows close to meeting those ideals.

PHOTO BY RUSSELL KAYE

Deciphering the Sticker

 PHOTO BY RUSSELL KAYE

George Mabry's kitchen and living room afford him broad views of his leafy backyard, the feature that most attracted him to the
property. Low-E coatings on the glass will cut down the heat in winter and broiling sun in summer.

Manufacturers typically submit their windows to tests that follow standards set by the nonpro t
National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC). Their ndings, reported on a sticker af xed to most new
windows, rate several factors, each expressed as a number. The sample below shows what all the gures
actually mean:

(A) U-FACTOR measures how much heat escapes from a room through the window; the lower the
number (usually between 0.20 and 1.20), the better the window's insulating ability. In colder climates,
look for 0.35 or lower. Warmer climates can go as high as 0.75.

(B) SOLAR HEAT GAIN COEFFICIENT (SHGC) indicates how much heat from the sun the window
allows to come into a room, expressed on a scale of 0 to 1. In warmer climates, look for an SHGC lower
than 0.4, which means that less than 40 percent of the sun's heat enters a room.

(C) VISIBLE LIGHT TRANSMITTANCE (VT) measures how much light passes through the window.
Anything higher than 0.6 (meaning 60 percent of the light is transmitted) will appear clear to the naked
eye. Numbers below 0.5 can signi cantly darken the view.

(D) AIR LEAKAGE (optional) essentially says how drafty a window is, measured in cubic feet of air per
square foot of window. A good number is between 0.1 and 0.3, and few manufacturers report this rating
unless the window falls into that range.

(E) CONDENSATION RESISTANCE (optional) shows, through a number between 1 and 100, how well a
window resists forming condensation (on the inside during cold months, on the outside during a humid
summer). The higher the number, the better the window is at resisting condensation.

DESIGN PRESSURE (Not shown) (optional) is a structural rating that shows how well a window can
withstand pressure from wind and rain in pounds per square foot. A large window should rate at least
DP-30; 40 or 50 is even better. In hurricane regions they must also have impact glass, which, like a
windshield, doesn't shatter. Check codes for local requirements.
Glass Facts

PHOTO BY RUSSELL KAYE

Tom shims a window to make it level and plumb as he and one of his crew nail the strong berglass unit into place.

The glass in a window is the rst line of defense against uncomfortable extremes of hot and cold, as well
as glare from the sun. "Comfort," where windows are concerned, is not a scienti c measurement, but the
National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC)a nonpro t organization that rates the performance of
windows, doors, and skylightsis working on ways to quantify it. "Comfort is the big issue now," says
NFRC executive director Jim Benney. "It's not only about ef ciency anymore."

Window glass has come a long way in the past couple of decades. Very few windows today are sold with
single panes, which are mostly used for historical accuracy and need good storm panels to work well.
Most windows are dual-pane and sandwich an inert gas that doesn't conduct heat well, like argon or
krypton, between the two pieces of glass to create an insulated panel. More expensive triple-pane
windows up the ef ciency with a third layer of glass in the sandwichgood for very cold climates or
places where noise is an issue.

Extra panes and insulating gases are only half the energy-saving armor. Most new window glass also has
a low-E (for "low-emissivity") coating on one or both of the sheets of glass. Low-E coatings are factory-
applied on the inside of the panes (soft coat) or incorporated into the glass itself (hard coat). While soft
coat performs better, hard coat lasts longer. Low-E can also be retro tted by applying a lm to the
outside of the window or installing a storm panel with hard-coat glass.

Originally developed to slow down the escape of household heat during cold weatherincreasing a
window's insulating ability, or U-factortoday's coatings also cut down on the heat from the sun that
enters the house, known as solar heat gain. (See "Deciphering the Sticker," left, for how these features
are rated.) As a bonus, the coatings also block most of the sun's ultraviolet rays, which can fade wood
and fabrics.

Cold climates, such as that at the TOH TV project house site, present a conundrum: How to cut solar
heat gain in summer but still take advantage of it in winter, to offset heating bills? The short answer is,
you can't have it both ways. But TOH plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey says it's more
important to control solar heat gain in summer. "It's not worth ghting for the extra heat in the winter,
because it's too spottyit won't warm up the whole house," he says. "You'll save more if you don't have
to crank the air-conditioning in the summer." While low-E coatings add 10 to 15 percent to the cost of
windows, they reduce energy loss by 30 to 50 percent, which means, depending on the type of heating
fuel being used, they could pay for themselves in 5 to 10 years. In fact, Michael Koenig, manager of the
technical group at Andersen Corporation, recommends a simple strategy: If you consistently use air-
conditioning to beat the heat wherever you live, buy windows with both a U-factor and a solar heat gain
rating around 0.35.

That advice falls roughly in line with the U.S. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Agency's guidelines for Energy Star?certi ed windows suitable in all 50 states. Energy Star windows
generally perform in the top 10 percent of all windows, says Koenig, and those rated for the entire
country will provide the best comfort in a wide range of weather conditions. The ones chosen for the
Cambridge housedual-paned, argon- lled, and low-Efall into that category.

The newest generation of low-E is also what's known in industry lingo as "spectrally selective," meaning
it keeps out heat without cutting down on lightan issue with early versions of low-E, which darkened
the window glass. While windows aren't labeled as having a spectrally selective coating, it's safe to
assume that any new window that doesn't have a visible tint and has good ratings on U-factor and solar
heat gain coef cient likely has it.

Frame Choices

PHOTO BY RUSSELL KAYE

Click on "Deciphering a Sticker" at right.

Because NFRC ratings also factor in the structural material around the glass, a window's frame is also
important to its ef ciency.

Wood
Traditional windows were framed entirely in wood, and solid wood windows are still sold today. Wood is
a good insulator, but does require a lot of maintenance to keep up the paint or stain that seals out
moisture and prevents rot.
Aluminum
Windows framed with aluminum are very strong, but because metal conducts heat, they aren't good
insulators. Manufacturers typically temper this drawback with plastic-strip insulation or by cladding a
wood frame with aluminum on the outside.

Vinyl
Frames made of vinyl are the darlings of the window marketrelatively inexpensive, low-maintenance,
and good at insulating. They aren't as strong as a high-quality wood or aluminum frame, so better
versions, like some of those used at the Cambridge house, combine vinyl with wood (the wood shows on
the interior, the vinyl on the exterior). One advantage to both aluminum and vinyl frames is the ability to
have them painted or primed at the factory, saving homeowners the time and trouble (and higher cost)
of doing it after installation.

Fiberglass
This relatively recent entry into the window-frame market is a composite material that is very strong, an
excellent insulator, and not prone to rotting, warping, or shrinking like wood. It can also be molded into
more pro les than vinyl to create interesting trim details. But berglass is more expensive than other
options, and not all manufacturers offer it yet. George Mabry opted for the sturdy stuff for the picture
windows in his living room and kitchen: the frames are wood on the inside with berglass trim on the
outside, and dual-pane glass is sandwiched in between. Perfect for holding up what appears to be a wall
of glasswith priceless views of the backyard.

Design Considerations

PHOTO BY RUSSELL KAYE

Rear View With all the windows nally in place, the TV project house is ready for its stucco siding.

It might seem simple: Bigger windows mean better views. In fact, poorly planned windows can provide
views you don't want (like the driveway or the cellar bulkhead) while missing the good stuff (like the
crown of that owering dogwood). They can also cause privacy issues for the house's very visible
inhabitants. By carefully mapping out window height, size, and placement, it's possible to play down a
bad view and accentuate the better vistasfrom both sides of the glass.
Todd Tsiang, a design consultant who is helping George Mabry with the aesthetic choices for his house,
says he always starts by thinking about how rooms will be used, then imagining the various viewpoints
from inside. For example, if the other side of a backyard is dominated by a tall apartment building, one
might want windows that are lowersay, at oor levelso the view is focused down on the landscaped
back patio, not on the looming building across the way. (Building codes typically specify that any
window that starts within 18 inches of the oor must be tempered safety glass.) Likewise, a window
over the driveway or air-conditioning compressor might be better up higher, to take in the treetops as
opposed to the car tires or the machinery.

Sometimes, however, privacy trumps view. The front of the TOH TV project house is quite close to a
busy sidewalk, and some of the most private rooms of the homelike the master bathface that way. To
bring in light while preserving George's modesty, architect Will Ruhl designed a series of (A) clerestory
windows, which sit high on the room's wall, above the sight line of the passing crowd.

In other rooms, privacy is gained through the use of (B) patterned glasslike the bumpy pattern chosen
for the lights around the front door entry. The glass allows sunlight in without exposing the entry foyer
to the eyes of outsiders. Seen at night from the outside, with the lights turned on inside, the solid door
will appear to oat dramatically in a wall of light. Where the industrial look of patterned glass isn't
appropriate, the best solution is good shades, such as the shoji screens and roll-up shades that Tsiang
chose to obscure the view and soften the light in various rooms.

Air ow becomes an important issue on those perfect 72-degree days when air-conditioning is
unnecessary. Not all of the windows in the Cambridge house open, but in each room there are some on
at least two walls that do, creating a cross breeze. In the kitchen and living room, as well as in some of
the upper-story bedrooms, those windows are (C) casements. In other parts of the second oor, shorter
(D) awning windows allow George to open them any time, even on a rainy night, for a breath of fresh air.

Where to Find It:

Click on "Design Considerations" at right.

Architect:
Will Ruhl, AIA
Boston, MA
617-268-5479
ruhlwalker.com

Design consultant:
Todd Tsiang
Newtonville, MA
617-527-8620
wanspages.prodigy.net/ttma

Windows and doors:

Andersen Corp.
Bayport, MN
888-888-7020
andersenwindows.com

For more information:

National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC)
Silver Spring, MD
301-589-1776
nfrc.org

Energy Star Programs

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, DC
888-782-7937
energystar.gov

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