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The Pretty Good House

prettygoodhouse.org

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Re: The Pretty Good House

#171

Post by thedougd »

Retric wrote: post #126
gambiting wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>and the voids are frequently filled with noble gasses like Argon for improved insulation. How long is such a window rated for? Surely the gas will eventually leak out?

Leakage rate is ~1% per year. However the gas isn’t so important you need to replace the window as argon is only up to 16% better than air. It’s worth it to manufacture windows like this, but unless you’re in the arctic circle I wouldn’t worry about the difference.

There’s been so many window manufacturer lawsuits over this issue that my guess is a manufacturing defect.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#172

Post by jq-r »

darkwater wrote: post #101
ghouse wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all architects know. Source -- Am in month 21 of a construction project. Have caught more than a dozen mistakes made by both the architect and the GC's subcontractors.

But that's normal, there are varying degrees of competence in each trade. If someone asks who should they hire to develop a software solution, the answer is "a software company", even if there are software companies that develop awful software full of bugs.

Slightly sarcastic a bit, but isn't the point of all that engineering schooling, certification, titles, social prestige etc some kind of assurance that those people don't make mistakes? Or if they do, very slight ones? In a sense you cannot have it both ways right?

Re: The Pretty Good House

#173

Post by Aeolun »

bjarneh wrote: post #88

> Even the best windows and doors on the market perform much worse than even an average wall New windows here in Norway are often triple or quadruple glazed, and they have a pretty good R-value; so they are not that much worse than average walls at least.

Quadruple glazing is insane, but it’s also ridiculously expensive.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#174

Post by kleiba »

My wife and I have entertained the idea of a bigger house for quite some time.

Well, that boat has sailed. Building has pretty much become unaffordable for us, unless we'd move way out to the country side. And I mean WAY out - we would spend a lot more time every day driving everywhere). We'd also have to build a rather modestly-sized home to fit it into our budget.

The thing is, the only reason we've started thinking about a new house in the first place is that - with a growing family - our current home is starting to feel a bit tight.

The only alternative would be to buy an older house and renovate it. That would possibly keep us in the general area, but financially it wouldn't be viable either. Houses here are usually priced so that if you were to get them to a modern standard, you would end up having spent the same amount of money as if you built a completely new home. Except that the old one will be, at its core, still an old house.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#175

Post by jaclaz »

fy20 wrote: post #48
nbar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dan do you ever talk about retro fitting old houses at your monthly talks. It would wonderful to learn what can be done to existing (my home is 1880’s) buildings to improve their performance.

Not exactly the same, but my city is retrofitting a lot of Soviet-era apartment blocks to bring them up to modern standards. They are made out of concrete with no insulation and were built when (natural) gas was basically free. The bulk of the work is wrapping the building in 25cm of rigid foam exterior insulation, replacing windows and making sure that they are fairly air tight. They aren't adding mechanical ventila…

>The bulk of the work is wrapping the building in 25cm of rigid foam exterior insulation, replacing windows and making sure that they are fairly air tight. They aren't adding mechanical ventilation, as installation would cause too much disruption to residents who are living there.

Hmmm, like the worst possible idea (air tight + not adequate ventilation), the early (10-15 years ago) "Class A" or "Class B" new buldings made here without appropriate ventilation have given lots of problems (humidity/mould).

The only possible remedy being daily manual ventilation, i.e. open windows for 10/15 minutes every single day (but many people won't or cannot do it).

Re: The Pretty Good House

#176

Post by sgt »

ido wrote: post #128
sgt wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in South Africa, single glazed is still a thing. I've been replacing all my windows with double glazing. I considered triple but that makes them very heavy and expensive. Benefits are both in hot summer and in the relatively cold winter.

Where in South Africa? I would guess that along the coast the weather is never extreme enough for this to matter all that much?

Cape Town. It matters a lot... actually, imagine 5C or even 10C outside and that cold just coming straight through the windows. That means you'll be freezing inside. In summer it also seems to help. Yesterday was 36C here and we had 25C indoors, which would had been much worse if we didn't have roof insulation and double glazed windows.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#178

Post by sgt »

10u152 wrote: post #134
sgt wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in South Africa, single glazed is still a thing. I've been replacing all my windows with double glazing. I considered triple but that makes them very heavy and expensive. Benefits are both in hot summer and in the relatively cold winter.

My house in Australia is all single glazed. But where I live summers aren’t that hot (rarely over 30c) and winters aren’t cold (rarely less than 10c overnight). I’ve considered double glazing but it makes no sense really

You will save on heating, though. If it's 10C outside and that cold creeps in, it's going to be pretty cold inside unless you run lots of heaters or a fireplace all the time.

Not everyone is bothered by this though, but I think a house should have at least 21C in winter.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#179

Post by Scoundreller »

kleiba wrote: post #174

My wife and I have entertained the idea of a bigger house for quite some time. Well, that boat has sailed. Building has pretty much become unaffordable for us, unless we'd move way out to the country side. And I mean WAY out - we would spend a lot more time every day driving everywhere). We'd also have to build a rather modestly-sized home to fit it into our budget. The thing is, the only reason we've started thinkin…

> Except that the old one will be, at its core, still an old house

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

I like the idea of the core of my house being true 2x4s made of hardwood, instead of scam “2x4s” where they say it’s because of their sawblades but I’d say it’s because the mills squeeze too many “2x4s” out of a log.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#180

Post by seb1204 »

10u152 wrote: post #134
sgt wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in South Africa, single glazed is still a thing. I've been replacing all my windows with double glazing. I considered triple but that makes them very heavy and expensive. Benefits are both in hot summer and in the relatively cold winter.

My house in Australia is all single glazed. But where I live summers aren’t that hot (rarely over 30c) and winters aren’t cold (rarely less than 10c overnight). I’ve considered double glazing but it makes no sense really

You should mention that Australian single glazed windows are also very easy going on all other aspects of the window and it's tightness to air/wind. At least the older ones.
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