In early summer when I put up the first of the Lair’s new siding, I also replaced the rear window. It had always been just a set of high, narrow tilting windows for ventilation and light, because I didn’t really figure at the time that the bathroom had any screaming need for a picture window. But then came the chickens, and I got tired of suiting up and going out in the snow every time they squawked.
That worked well enough. I knew I’d get more light and heat, which in the desert might just possibly be an issue, but it turned out the sun passed over the cabin at a high enough angle it wasn’t a big deal. Only real problem was remembering to close the window when it might rain, which with the old jalousies had never been an issue.
Then it started to get cold, and I learned that I had been throwing away a helluva lot of passive solar heat better brought into the cabin. We’re still about a month from the solstice but just about the time it started to be necessary to heat the interior, the sun’s angle got down to where it blasts in through that window in the late afternoon. So the cabin is at its warmest just before sundown, which is exactly the way you’d plan that – if you’d been planning it.
So now I’ve got more passive solar heating in the winter than I really deserve, given that it was a completely unintended consequence of chicken farming. 🙂
When we purchased the property that we later built on one of the things that fell into place was solar. Our home site on a north south axis so we pick up a lot of solar gain in the late fall/winter/early spring. Like what happened to you, our solar heat gain was pure luck.
BTW with everything going on these days it’s nice to read a good news story.
When good luck is the unintended consequence… run with it!! 🙂 and what the heck, take credit for it!
Good news! Between that and the insulation/draft stopping value of your siding & wrap, we might have fewer firewood cutting stories to read next summer. (Not that I mind firewood cutting stories)
Is it significant enough that you might consider another window in that wall?
Ben, without pulling down kitchen cabinets there’s no room for one. And it would be too much of a good thing anyway.
Most people don’t realize how much the sun helps winter. I’d have to cut down a lot of trees to get it, unfortunately.
If summer is ever too hot for you, a small (possibly removable) “eyebrow” shade above the window (that is outside) would be easy.
If you want more, Joel, put some large black containers of water inside in the sunlight. It’ll catch heat from the sun, and radiate so much heat at night, it will blow your mind.
Yes, what Brass said. Just anything that adds mass. If you have white containers, wrap them in trash bags. If you put a board across the top, you have a place to let bread rise, start little plants, maybe grow some winter greens and a couple of flowers. I have south-east facing windows in the studio, and I can grow chard out there all winter. And the house faces southwest, so solar gain is lovely in winter, but shades sure help in summer. You will no doubt want an awning.
Unintended consequences of the most beautiful kind 🙂 From now on, I will think of your solar gain rather than the novel. And I’ll smile.
Bravo! Joel! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, too!
(in case I don’t get around here for a while)
feralfae
Or put LB’s bed in front of the window. Let him absorb the solar radiation during the day, and re-radiate it back at night!
}:-]
Mebbe you needs you another Black Dog?