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Ratman
Registered Users
Posts:14
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| 07/12/2008 12:05 AM |
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I am building a Zero Energy passive solar home in upstate NY and am looking to optimize between performance and total life cost. I have looked at Pella, Marvin and Andersen windows and I don't find much difference in their high end windows. Has anyone done this trade off calculation?
I am now looking at Alpen Windows... They are much more expensive than the pervious windows but appear to be more energy efficient.. Does anyone have experience with Alpen as this is an unknown manufacturer to me. |
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windowguy71
Registered Users
Posts:4
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| 07/16/2008 11:46 AM |
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| Try going to Inline Fiberglass Ltd. They are located in Toronto, a little closer to you for shipping. They are the suppliers of the frames to Alpen. Website has a lot of info. Good Luck! |
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CathyK
Registered Users
Posts:5
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| 07/18/2008 6:36 AM |
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| I just emailed Alpen and they don't send their product this far east. I've priced out InLine, Marvin Integrity, Marvin, Andersen, Kobe, and Bonneville. Only InLine and Integrity are fiberglass and InLine has what they call hardcoat and softcoat double glazed windows (one for highest SHGC and one for highest U rating, I believe). The quote from InLine was a bit higher than Andersen (the lowest) or Integrity (the next lowest) but their ratings seem a lot better than any of the more common US manufacturers. Plus, the Inline is a fiberglass frame with a wood clad interior (the same as Integrity) but it's oak, not pine, and InLine is willing do do factory staining. No one else will stain and only a few will provide factory applied white paint. Just to add to your confusion (but you'll learn alot if you haven't looked at these sites already) check out: http://www.efficientwindows.org/members_mfgr.cfm and www.nfrc.org. If you check out the nfrc site, go to the "certified products directory" for energy data. In addition, InLine has been really quick with information. They're even willing to give me a guess-tamate of shipping costs (which many other merchants seem unwilling to do until you have an exact order in place.) |
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Ratman
Registered Users
Posts:14
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| 07/18/2008 7:10 PM |
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CathyK,
I just called Alpen and talked to therie sales rep and they ship all over the world (as well as NY).
I am also building in upstate NY . I would suggest you call them directly.
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Stephen T
Registered Users
Posts:9
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| 07/19/2008 12:33 PM |
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For a Zero Energy Passive Solar Home in Upstate NY i have the following suggestions:
Try very hard to model your home using Energy-10 or some similar program this will let you see the thermal effect of different window options.
Based on our experience this type of analysis for a house in your climate, will point you in the direction of triple glazing with a high Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) low-e -- especially for your south facing glazing.
(for an example of some computer modelling based analysis of how to get to Zero see:
http://www.energysmiths.com/resources/documents/BE2006ZEHsession.pdf )
Remember too the key to Zero Energy Passive Solar is more than incredibly energy efficient windows. You need have an incredibly good envelope. This means super high levels of insulation (likely R40 walls R60 ceiling) and extreme levels of air tightness --- and an air to air heat exchanger!
Another key element as you approach zero is to incorporate some mass to absorb day time gains and release them at night. But for this to work you'll need to tolerate some degree of day/night temperature swing.
We have a customer just north of here (here being Ottawa ON) that followed this recipe. While he did use some wood heatlast winter, the last time he fired his stove was Feb 22.
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Stephen Thwaites P.Eng.
Thermotech Fiberglass Fenestraion
Ottawa, Ontario |
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