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New front for old A-Frame

Dinosaur | Posted in General Discussion on March 21, 2009 10:41am

Energy cost may be what pushes people into actually spending money on their homes even in this bull’s-arse-in-fly-time economic climate, if inquiries I’ve had in the past few weeks are any indication. One client has finally decided he’s going to have to go for the new, insulated roof he asked me about three years ago, and another wants to replace the old, Thermopane glass front of his A-frame with something that will leak less heat.

I’ve worked on this A-frame before (see The Roofing Job From Hell thread). It’s a true A-frame with a 27/12 pitch. The year before we did that roofing job, we removed all the fixed glass panes in the back wall and reframed for a standard patio-door slider and a single window. Then we sided that with board-and-batten. It’s worked out well, and now the client wants to talk about redoing the front wall, too.

Here’s a photo of the place taken during the roofing job. As you can see, the front wall is virtually all glass.

View Image

The HO is now looking for some ideas on how to re-do this front wall so that (a) the heat-loss in cold weather is reduced,  (b) the solar heat-gain in hot weather (that wall faces southeast) is reduced, and (c) as little light-loss as possible is incurred (the place is dark as a dungeon as soon as the sun moves past the yard-arm…).

I have heard of or read about a type of ‘interactive’ insulated-glass pane which changes its solar absorptivity and reflectivity quotients according to exterior temperature and light intensity, but I no longer remember where I saw that article.

Does anyone know about this product, or does anyone have any other suggestions for the best type of glass to use on this?

Dinosaur

How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
foolish men call Justice….

View Image

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Replies

  1. User avater
    McDesign | Mar 22, 2009 12:09am | #1

    Any chance of a SolarTube or two with a rotatable (heliostat) sun-tracking collector?

    Forrest

    1. User avater
      Dinosaur | Mar 22, 2009 01:10am | #2

      Not familiar with those.

      ??

      Dinosaur

      How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....

      1. User avater
        McDesign | Mar 22, 2009 03:10am | #4

        Something along these lines - http://archrecord.construction.com/tech/techBriefs/0705dignews-1.asp

         

        Forrest

        1. User avater
          Dinosaur | Mar 22, 2009 07:52pm | #5

          Nice, but a bit over the top for this chalet.

          What we're looking for is the highest R-factor inisulated-pane glass available, combined with some method for controlling solar heating. Obviously, we want the solar heating effect in the cold months, but we want to shut it out in summer.

          Dinosaur

          How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....

  2. ponytl | Mar 22, 2009 01:23am | #3

    there is an A frame like the one pictured  not far from our lake house...  I can see the balcony inside on your picture...   what they did was bring that floor all the way to the front... gained alot of inside room... and put a balcony with a pair of french doors out to it.......  which in effect created a coved entry for the lower matching french doors...

    shouldn't be too hard or expensive... and would add to the value of the home...

    for light  you might consider a dormer on one or both sides to further expand the living space upstairs....

    just some things i'd consider if it was mine

    p

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