[Greenbuilding] Re: anybody building a greenhouse?

[Robert Tom]

On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:16:17 -0400, Keith Winston  
<keith at earthsunenergy.com> wrote:

> Wow, they're really single-glazed? For some reason I'd thought they were
> old double-glazed. I'm interested, though I don't know why yet ;-)
>
> For anyone who might be interested: these will be tempered glass, so it
> won't be possible to cut them down to different sizes.
>
> Keith
>
>
> Alan Abrams wrote:
>>
>> the Silver Spring, MD condo I live in is going through another round
>> of window and balcony door replacement, which will result in several
>> dozen robust, 60’s vintage, aluminum framed, single glazed units.
>> there may be enough to do an entire greenhouse with. if interested,
>> please get in touch.
>>
>> Alan Abrams, AIBD
>>
>> www.abramsdesignbuild.com <http://www.abramsdesignbuild.com>


Here in Mooseland, they were still using this type of patio door on tract  
homes and  high rises even in the 80's.

They would stack two panels per side (ie 8 panels per double lite-wide  
patio door) to create an "insulated" patio door. A royal PITA to use but  
no problem with failed edge seals, ever. Not much good as an "insulated"  
opening either due to the thermal bridging of the aluminum sash and frame.

As to what to do with them, they can still be used to create somewhat  
effective fixed, vertical glazing.

A panel with the aluminum sash can be used as-is as the exterior  
rainscreen, clipped to a wood-framed opening with 2x4 wood mullions as  
required.

Multiple glazing layers can be added to the interior as desired . These  
would be the tempered glass removed from the aluminum sash (by undoing the  
4 screws at the corners and knocking the side rails off of the end rails  
... quick and easy).

Depending upon the style (ie thickness) of the neoprene glazing channel  
that was used to hold the glass in the aluminum sash, the glass and  
glazing channel can be clamped against the backside of the previously  
mentioned rainsscreen panel, inserting a non-conductive spacer (ie wood)  
if necessary, to create the desired spacing between the glass.

The final interior glazing panel should be detailed as the air barrier.

The remaining aluminum sash should then be taken to the local scrap metal  
recycler.

Voila! One $#!+ -load  of material diverted from the landfill and put to  
good re-use.

Or the glass-in-sash could be used to create single-glazed enclosed  
porches to function as thermal buffer zones around the primary thermal  
envelope.

Or, the all of the glass could be removed from the aluminum sash and  
reconfigured as sloped glazing, for porch roofs, shed roofs, etc.

Heck, if I lived near AA-man, I'd be first in line to snatch up those  
doors.

What I would do is rent a dumpster and have the window guys put the doors  
into the dumpster and then have the dumpster company pick it up (loaded)  
and deliver it to my site. No muss, no fuss, no running back and forth  
with a little pick-up truck.

-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
< A r c h i L o g i c  at chaffY a h o o  dot  c a >
manually winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply