It's all about the [window] details
Passive House Window Details
Placed and installed properly, the benefits of just the right windows go beyond a beautiful view. It’s really all about the details.
Cutting holes in the envelope of your home has to be done with great planning and precision. Windows can be a weak spot in your air and water barriers.
At the Beacon Hill High Performance Home, we used ZIP System® sheathing around the rough opening of the windows to create a continuous air barrier from the window to the wall.
At seams, joints, and rough openings, we used a few PROSOCO products to maintain the continuous air and water barrier.
While this blog isn’t sponsored by PROSOCO, maybe we need to touch base with their marketing team 😅😅
We applied PROSOCO Joint & Seam Filler to reinforce the seam between materials in the window rough opening.
The red material applied along the bottom of the rough opening is PROSOCO FastFlash, their liquid flashing membrane.
Within the window detail we applied AirDam, an air and weather sealant that ensures moisture from outside doesn’t enter the home and conditioned interior air doesn’t escape around the window.
A continuous air barrier is one of the most important items to think about when building high performance. Not only does heat gain and loss through windows account for 25-30% of residential heating and cooling expenses, a drafty window just isn’t comfortable!
The right windows, in this case
Alpen's Tyrol PH+ series,
installed properly are a crucial step in the path to high performance.
