The Kid's Tree in the Loft above the Great Room
The Adult Tree in the Great Room (still looking for a lightweight lighted topper)
Nutter Green Home: A Sustainable, Solar Home
Monday, December 01, 2008
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The Adult Tree in the Great Room 
2 comments:
Hi there,
In reading some of your older posts, I noticed you used Jeld-Wen windows. We are looking at that brand, as well. Do you mind sharing why you went with Jeld-Wen and how you feel about them now that they are installed? We are looking for a very energy efficient window...that does not break the bank.
Thank you for any additional information.
And congratulations on a beautiful home.
Susan
We went with Jeld Wen because it was one of the only ones that we could specify a HIGH Solar Heat Gain Co-efficient (SHGC) and a LOW U-value. This means that the window allows heat from the sun to come in, but then does not let indoor conditioned (heated or cooled) back out the windows.
When we solicited bids for windows, we received them from Jeld-Wen, Loewen, PeachTree, Anderson, and a commercial window company called Kawneer. Pella came into the game late and I told them not to bother if they couldn't get below a certain price point, and so I never heard from them again. The Jeld-Wen came in about 1/2 the price of the Loewen (which would have been my second choice). Getting any of these other companies to do the high SHGC with the Low U-Value spec was really problematic and caused them to have to do a "custom" bid. Jeld-Wen just happened to have a stock window that offered these properties. We also saved a little money because we specified stock sizes.
We love the windows so far. One casement window has a problem with the crank, but I think my husband can fix it. The only other problem we have had is the top-most operable window in the Great Room which is about 16' off the floor. We have a long pole that's supposed to open the window - let's just say it's not easy and we don't open it as often as we should. I kind of feel like the salesman didn't due his research when we submitted the design, and should have told us that it was too high for the pole to work properly.
Anyway, I feel we got an extremely energy efficient window for a decent price. We paid about $17K I think - but we have a ton of window. If I had it to do over, I'd have used more awning style windows that open from the bottom so that we could have them open when it's raining. We basically leave our windows open from April to October - we hardly ever use the AC. Let me know if you need any other info. Thanks!
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