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Designing with Windows and Doors
Nisby customer service representative’s are trained to assist you in planning window renovations.
The sun's energy is free. Solar energy can improve the lighting and comfort of your home, and it can cut your fuel bills; it can also provide too much warmth and cause overheating, both in summer and winter. Decisions you make at the planning stage about the number of windows, their size and location – particularly in relation to the sun's orientation at different times of the year – will be as important a consideration in determining your window requirements as their insulative properties or how they look.
For example, increasing window areas on the south side of a building can increase the contribution that the sun makes to heating the home in the winter, which may offset your heating costs. But be sure to plan for sufficient eave overhang to shade these south-facing windows in the summer months to prevent unwanted solar gain.
Until recently, an established rule of thumb in window placement was to install fewer and fixed windows on the north side of a home, to prevent excessive heat losses in the winter. Another rule of thumb recommended keeping east and west exposures to a minimum except when needed for aesthetics and daylight, in order to prevent excessive solar heat gain in the summer.
But over the past several years the rules for window placement have changed with advances in window technology. The arrival of high-performance windows has given consumers more choice in window selection – whether it's for an existing home renovation or for specifying in a new home.
Remember the following rule of thumb: keep the ratio of window area to floor area at about 1:10. That is, for every square metre of window area, make sure you have at least ten square metres of floor area. This will prevent overheating in the living space due to too much solar gain. There are also code requirements in many areas for kitchens, and dining and living rooms.
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