Imagine a house without windows and you're likely to conjure up some prison like dwelling or subterranean Earth and home constructed into the side of the hill. Windows, large and small, perform important functions in the typical home.
General Considerations
When planning for and selecting windows for your home, keep the following points in mind for each potential frame opening:
Drawbacks
Like any other feature in a home-house windows can also have their drawbacks:
Window Types
When selecting from the 11 basic window types used on today's modern homes, there is no reason why you can't employ 2 or 3 types of them as long as they look nice together. At the same time, there is no reason why you can't combine one type of movable window with a fixed window, or even with another type of movable window in the same opening.
- They provide natural lighting.
- They emit fresh air for ventilation and allow oxygen depleted air to be expelled.
- They provide access for passive solar heating
- Openings in the houses outer shell can be used for air-conditioning units.
- They enable the occupants to attain visual continuity with the outdoors
- They provide exits to the outdoors in case of emergencies.
General Considerations
When planning for and selecting windows for your home, keep the following points in mind for each potential frame opening:
- Insulating and anti-air infiltration properties.
- Ease of operation.
- Necessary maintenance.
- Ease or difficult to clean.
- It's style and how it will fit with your overall exterior scheme.
- Price - a cheap window could cause a loss of any initial savings through consequential increases in heating cooling and maintenance costs.
Drawbacks
Like any other feature in a home-house windows can also have their drawbacks:
- Large expanses of glass increase heat loss during periods of cold temperatures and become a source of unwanted, and at times uncontrollable, solar heat gain during warmer months.
- In the summer, when those not only let the hot sun in to make the inside of the house uncomfortably warm, but they also permit sunlight to fade the color from the carpeting, paneling, furniture upholstery, and practically anything else.
- In addition to providing views that might not always be pretty, Windows can turn the house into a goldfish bowl by enabling outsiders and strangers to see into the interior living areas.
- Windows require a fair amount of washing-ensures no one enjoys. Every now and then a child softball smashes through 1, or a limp from a nearby tree gets blown to close, and they must be replaced.
- Windows of the 1st services in the house to fog up when the interior humidity increases. They can stream with condensation, which might ruin the finish on the sills.
- Windows can admit annoying neighborhood noises.
- When not secured properly, Windows provide encouragement to burglars and intruders.
- Windows become ugly black mirrors from inside when you turn on the lights at night.
- Windows require expensive curtains, draperies, and blinds that also need periodic cleaning.
- If not carefully and tastefully selected and located, instead of improving the appearance of the house it can actually detract from it.
Window Types
When selecting from the 11 basic window types used on today's modern homes, there is no reason why you can't employ 2 or 3 types of them as long as they look nice together. At the same time, there is no reason why you can't combine one type of movable window with a fixed window, or even with another type of movable window in the same opening.