DECEMBER 2014 — The real estate mantra "location, location, location" means a lot more than good schools and nice neighbors. As I've been reminded over the past 18 months of site hunting here in Connecticut, it's also about the dirt, trees, rocks, wetlands, sunlight, road frontage, acreage, drainage, well water, flood zones, utilities, property lines and all that stuff we tend to take for granted when the roof is already over our heads. Starting "from the ground up" is precisely that — dirt! Now consider that your house lives in the junction between the dirt and the atmosphere, and you'll realize just how much impact those global entities can have on your home. I'm not talking earthquakes and tornadoes here, just the daily business of ground, atmosphere and sun. Today (like many New Englanders this time of year) I'm thinking about sun.
Because my day job is communications and marketing, realsmarthouse began two years ago with demographic research into "housing in America." What did most people need and want, now that the real estate bubble has long since burst and McMansions look foolish? First discovery stop: the Suburbs. I was delighted to learn that the term "suburb" has been in use since Roman times in one form or another to mean the exactly same thing. But as I delved into the evolution of housing in the hope of predicting its future, more questions than answers came bubbling up. Before long, I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole... or should I say, out the Vindauga.
Vindauga is Old Norse for "wind hole" or "wind eye" and the precursor of "window." Back then it was a hole in the sod roof to let smoke out, and as wall-building technology developed, holes there too to let the breeze in and to shoot arrows out of. It wasn't until the late 1500's that window glazing became economically feasible for the merchant class, and that was a huge advance. Now you could close the vindauga to keep the rain and bugs out but let the light in, open it for the breeze or to shoot arrows out. This was a major technological advance in home building.
"The window was also perhaps the last truly game-changing evolution in residential housing design, and a milestone in our retreat from living in the natural environment."
Stone, wood and now glass became the defining elements of house building in the Western hemisphere, each with its own techniques, tools and tradesmen. These days, most of our stick-built houses still follow many centuries-old construction methods, though now, of course, you can buy your vindaugas double- or triple-glazed — and you can still open them to let the wind in or the arrows out. But because your house likely has a nice HVAC system and you are not a rabid Hunger Games fan, you rarely open those windows or shoot arrows out of them, and so you probably use the windows mostly for the view and the light.
That's when Suburbia gave me a big WTF moment. Your typical house there, with the street out front and the neighbors left and right, has one decent view: the back yard. There are millions of beautiful back yards in America, but many millions more shades and blinds and curtains over windows to the left, right and front, because there's often nothing much to see there and besides, you really don't want your nosy neighbors looking in. But, you at least need the windows for the light, right? Well... let's think about that for a moment.
Seeing the light, naturally
Sunlight comes from the sky and reflects off the landscape around your home. Inside the house, it bounces off the walls and floors and furnishings, lighting up the rooms. The sizing and placement of glazing in windows and doors around your home, especially in a tightly insulated, passive solar home, is critical. You want the best natural light from your location, but you don't want to lose energy through too much glass (even the latest triple pane windows achieve an R value of 5, compared to 10+ for an insulated wall.) That's why we spend a lot of time analyzing the light flow in realsmarthouse models, and researching such remarkable products as Kalwall nanogel panels. As of this writing we are most of the way to achieving the perfect balance of natural daylighting and energy savings for the New American Barn. Stay tuned!
Good reads: The Rise of the Hybrid Home | What's a Real Smart House? | Process: Design