Saturday 19 August 2017

Tiny windows

 Above is Hugh Miller's birthplace. Two hundred years ago the houses were built with small windows so as not to lose heat easily.
The same was true 40 years ago when the Wates Homes house was built as the best insulated house in Europe. It is still there at the Centre for Alternative Technology. The centre now points out that improvements in window insulation mean that it is now a bad strategy. Big windows allow in sunlight for passive solar heating. It is crazy to shut out that free energy.