[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: Trying to maximize passive solar gain

[Lawrence Lile]

>Speaking of tempered patio door glass...

>Yesterday we had some winds whip through here at a fairly good clip (no

doubt helped along by the fact that the deciduous trees aren't in leaf  
yet) and I was out battening down the hatches on a lumber shed when I  
heard a "KEE-RASH!!!" coming from the vicinity of the house. I glanced  
over and didn't see anything amiss.

>Afterwards when I returned to the house, I found that a glass wall of
an  
enclosed porch had been torn off by the wind and tossed onto some
boulders  
a few feet away. All of the glass was still intact. Once again, I am  
amazed at how tough tempered glass is.


My Dad used to have a cabinet shop, and they sold some other odd things
like tempered glass patio doors.  He had a display model of a patio door
on rollers.  He'd yammer on to customers about how tough the glass was,
until he saw their eyes start rolling, because everybody knows that
glass is fragile.  Then he'd haul off and kick that door with a
roundhouse kick.  The whole thing would shake and it would slide across
the floor on it's rollers, which is probably why it never broke.  He
kicked that glass at least a hundred times.  Sold a lot of sliding glass
doors that way.  


On the other hand, I fell and put my fist through one once.  I wasn't
cut, until I pulled it back... 

--Lawrence