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Bob Crager
Bob Crager of Lewis Street Glass is a 26 year veteran in the glass business. Lewis Street Glass is a leading Wichita Glass company, serving the entire Wichita/Sedgwick County area since 1919. They do anything and everything having to do with glass, both residential and commercial. They also do Auto glass. They are located at 743 South Market, facing Kellogg on the South, and you can reach them by phone at (316) 263-8259. You can email Bob Crager at bcrager@lewisstreetglass.com
Glass
2007-08-01 11:27:00
What is a ‘green building’?
Answer: Many consumers seem willing to pay more for a product labeled “green.” The achievement of a claim to environmental friendliness, as judged by an independent agency, can do wonders in the marketing of energy efficient windows. The “green buildings” movement is based on a presumption that energy efficient buildings are good for the environment. Of course if the number of buildings increases more than their efficiency, the net impact on the environment is negative. On a hypothetical basis at least, it is clear that by saving energy, a building would be responsible for less air and water pollution at the power plant, less depletion of fossil fuels and those attendant consequences, or reduced adverse consequences of nuclear power production, and reduced emissions of certain gases. No matter how good the window, if it faces east or west and is not adequately shaded, it can produce serious glare, peak A/C loads, and localized over-heating problems inside the building. This localized over-heating can make the areas affected very uncomfortable for residents, which is the reason that the use of shading devices has been discussed so extensively. Exterior shades are more effective than interior ones. Shades located on the room side of the window heat up when the sun shines on them, even if they reflect some of the incident sunshine back out through the window. In consequence, they can still admit a lot of heat into the building, making the room less comfortable and causing the air conditioner to work harder. Shades located outside, however, release nearly all of the solar heat absorbed by them to the surrounding air and outside objects. For this reason, it is much more effective to block incident solar heat before it reaches the window. Interior shades are most effective if they have high reflectivity over the whole solar spectrum on the outward-facing side. This means that the outside appearance of such shades will be either bright white or shiny. The inward side can be just about any color, texture, and/or pattern you might want. If the outside appearance of the shade is mirror-like or excessively shiny, this can be an aesthetic problem to some people, so it is probably best to have a “duller,” diffusely reflecting white shade. Some shades offer a partially or fully trapped air space between the outward- and inward-facing sides, and should better keep the heat that is absorbed by the shade’s outer surface away from the interior air. This reduces the load on the air conditioner and makes the shade more comfortable to sit near. For the best results with such shades, the edges should feather seal to the edges of the window, trapping the warm air between the shade and the window. In this case, the heat so trapped has a better chance of being conducted through the window to the outside. Managing heat transfer through window glass correctly can save you a lot of your hard earned dollars...More next month…
 
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