So many decisions for something clear...

This will be short and to the point. As I stated earlier, I think window placement and design should take place from the interior point of view; ignoring the exterior aesthetics for the most point. While windows can “dress up” the exterior of the house, I do not believe they should be placed just by looking at the exterior elevations. I also do not agree with the traditional designs that standardize the number of windows per room. The windows should compliment the views from the room. If the room has great views, then add extra windows, if it faces an unattractive view, don’t add a window unless code dictates or you need extra lighting/ventilation. Also, some care should be taken on where to place a window. For example, in our current house for this floor plan, it was standard to place 1-5’x3’ slider window in the master bedroom. While it does let enough light in, it does not have the best placement. Our bedroom is in the corner of the house with walls facing the east and the north. To the east of us is another house, and to the north is our back yard. The builder/designer elected to place the 1 and only window facing …you guessed it… the neighbor’s house. I will never understand why they did not place it facing the back yard. Since we have been in this house, we have corrected this problem. We cut an opening through the brick facing the back yard and installed a set of French doors. Problem solved.

When originally planning for our house, we had intended on using commercial windows mainly for the clean lines. After much research, we discovered this was not the best way to go. Commercial window manufactures are not as concerned with energy efficiency as most residential window manufactures. This is due in part to their use. If you think about it, the majority of the energy usage of businesses is not contributed to the fact that their windows are not energy efficient; it is their lighting, electronics, computers, heating/cooling, and the entry doors opening and closing all day letting the warm air out/in. Therefore, most commercial window manufactures do not focus on extremely energy efficient windows. If they do then you will pay a premium for them.

To get the best bang for our buck, we have decided to go with a residential window manufacture. But how do you know what type of window to purchase? After all, you can get wood, aluminum, thermally broken aluminum, wood-clad, vinyl, composite, or fiberglass. And that is just the frame. From there you still must decide on the glazing, tinting, and insulating gas. A couple of websites I discovered to help make this process a bit easier are:

http://www.efficientwindows.org/index.cfm

http://www.energy.gov/

I have literally spent hours at each one of these websites learning as much as I could about windows. After we weighed all our options and decided on which type of window to buy, we had to begin searching for a manufacture. We were going to use one of the big name companies but decided against it. While most of them offer great warranties on their product, I have heard many stories on the difficulty to get them to honor it. We have ultimately decided to go with a local manufacturer that has been in business for the past 24 years and is a member of the BBB.

The bottom line of what we have learned so far: Don’t skimp on the windows, they can save you a lot of $$ in the long run.

Next:

The envelope of a building. There is more to it than you might think.