The ABC's of the PHPP - Part 4c The Morning after the Night Before

Ever hid hungover in the shadows the morning after the night before?  You know full well those windows will let in light… a lot of light that will make your head pound and your eyes squint.  Fortunately some kind and benevolent person invented curtains.  You hang up the right sized curtains made of the right room darkening materials and you have as much shade as your hungover little soul craves.  Guess what else those windows let in?  Heat.   But can you control the heat that comes in through a window like you can control the light?  Sure you can… with a hungover…, a hangover…, with an overhang (among other solutions).

The PHPP takes heat gain and heat loss very seriously in a construction.  Not only do all the heat sources within a building get modeled for any heat they may produce, heat sources from outside the home are modeled too.  The light that comes through a window also brings heat.  The window materials can help control how much heat is allowed in, but there are other factors that need to be considered as well.  One homeowner may want very large windows, but the heat needs to be offset with quite an extensive shading plan so the home does not overheat or cool too much in the winter.   Another homeowner may have very little solar heat gain on his lot because he has a legacy Oak tree that his grandfather planted as a boy and he wants the house located with the tree on its south side.  As a matter of fact, in any scenario that you could think of, the shading factors of a building need to be considered, even if those shading factor are just the eaves of the building or the reveal of the window frame.  Yes, the PHPP is that particular.  It is that level of detail that makes it as beneficial as it is.

On the shading sheet you will see several columns that you must fill in regarding the shading of your windows.  It may be a bit confusing just which measurement to use where, but I found a fabulous picture of some row houses in Louisiana that exhibit all of the features that are asked for in one picture.

The PHPP manual has some great descriptions for the different type of shading features that could typically be found such as nearby buildings, overhangs, and window frames.  This picture just puts it all together in one handy-dandy place.   Do refer to the PHPP manual for exact shading information as this is very important to having a PHPP that will reliably measure your project before it is constructed.  You will note that my example of rother shading is actually a bit of a stretch, you would use gates or other misc. objects that would be taller to cast more of a shadow, but this picture reminds you to include those objects.

No matter what type of shading, you will need to include it in the PHPP.  As we work through the PHPP you will notice that there is a Summer Shading worksheet as well.  That is not a duplicate, nor is it to be used instead of this Shading worksheet.  That worksheet will take into consideration things that would only shade the construction during part of the year like deciduous trees and temporary shading devices.  We’ll cover that when we get there.

Next up – the Windows worksheet.