October 2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

windows of the bay to a wood frame Marvin window with the same proportions and operations as, the other window except it contained double paned glass with argon fill which makes it more ejjrcient, but also a low -e coating which also makes it more ejficient as far as the thermal transfer. Single pane glass has absolutely no insulating value at all, so this would be a huge difference. We've looked at other possibilities, and one of them was the possibility of storm windows on the outside, but this house has never had storm windows on the outside. The traditional storm window really needs about an inch and a quarter minimum of reveal on the exterior trim for them to fit. If we tried that, the windows would stick out from the trim and would not fit properly. I feel that this would be a detriment to the appearance of the building and actually there's a number of homes in the area that have done that and architecturally it really does alter the appearance of a building. One of things about our older buildings is that windows were recessed back and placed on a plane further back from the building. This is part of the thing that makes them so attractive. When we put storms on the outside, you're losing the depth of the fagade. This is one of the things that we thought would be a detriment to the house, they'd just look odd. One of the great threats to our historic buildings is how to keep them warm in the winter and comfortable in the summer at the same time. And so, also with a storm we have the problem of having to change them at times of the year that may not exactly be appropriate. Making a decision of when to change windows can still cost money. So, we're looking to rather than change all the windows is to replace them with modern windows and save all the parts if anyone wants to restore them later, that could be done. So, what we're proposing now is to change one window so that we can do two things to see what the difference is, this is a full sized elevation of the drawing, this is the existing condition and the sill and the trim on the side. The one thing that will be different in appearance as far as the profile of everything is the sill that is an integral part of the window and if this is installed you could do two things, rip out the existing sill and insert this in some way, but I don't feel this is desirable. You couldn't reverse the installation later if someone wanted to. We'll end up with windows of the same proportion except for this very slim sill. Sothis is what we've proposed and this is of very great interest tome because I'm interested in energy usage and I'm going to take measurements to see the differences. We're proposing to restore the other existing window to perform as well as it can possibly perform functionally with the windows going up and down and so forth. The thermal performance needs to be evaluated, not just because you have storm windows and two panes, and these modern panes really do save a lot of energy. We will save all of the pieces if someone does want to reverse the process. This is the only visual change which most people will not be able to notice from the street. Any questions? Klusezinski: I'll get to that. Chair opens up discussion for questions for either the petitioner or the staff. I did have a few questions myself. Sporleder: I was just comparing and if you line these up, it looks sort of significant on apiece of paper- like % of an inch difference, but if windows are 6 ft tall, I'm not sure that I'd notice % of an inch. Klusczinksi: Mr. Defrees, I did hear you speak about exterior wood storms and the amount of reveal but I didn't hear you discuss maybe what would be a permanent fix for the person that you're representing and that would be either aluminum storms on the outside that could be removed with the least work being done to the building or interior storms. Maybe the energy potential in savings, and the reason that I'm asking these questions is that this is very much deja vu for a number of us that have been through a couple of C of A's last year. I think that it's important for us to understand the concept of what's happening. I think that last year, and correct me if I'm wrong Professor, you proposed 10 windows out of 54 in your house, and 10 out of 54 back then, it really cries out to me on what energy savings potential the owner of the property would be able to have from that. Some of the windows that were proposed were not those that were in detriment and leaking so much either. So, I was thereat that property and I know the house intimately and it was proposed at that time that maybe other options would better suit the house. I appreciate your opinion and at least as far as I'm trying to get to here, we have standards and guidelines which we have to abide by too, which don't necessarily reflect vision and some of your opinion, so we try to factor that in also. Again, this is just me talking, but I 11