Some of the plastic lattice trim around the Trombe wall glazing has been curling away from the house from the intense heat from the sun. I don’t think I used enough nails to tie it to the boards behind it. More nails seem to take care of the gaps. Although I was working on a siding project at the back door, I thought I would just use the nail gun to tack the trim down a little more. Of course I had just tacked the side of a window making sure the gun was pointed away from the glass. But when I moved down to the next window I did not alter the angle of the nails. I heard it before I saw it. Crack and the entire window broke into a million tiny pieces which is what tempered glass does. In minutes most of the window fell to the ground.
Being distracted in this way of course just led to more repairs. The snow has come and the back door siding did not get finished. But the glass was replaced while the weather was still favorable.
I cleared all the glass out of the channel with a flat head screwdriver. It fell out easily when poked. Dave swept most of the glass from below where it had fallen.
Then I removed the side and bottom pieces of the frame from the wall. They were stuck on with black butyl tape which in the heat of the sun was not that difficult to pry away from the wall and scrape off.
I had hoped I could slide the new pane into the top and side frame pieces but the hooks at the bottom were in the way. I just decided to remove the hooks. Then it was still too tight a fit with the center trim piece so we removed that too. It was just nailed in and after those nails were pulled from the trim piece we could reuse it.
That gave us enough space on one side and the bottom to reinstall the glass.
However without the hooks at the bottom of the frame the window has to be held from slipping down by spacers underneath. I used scrap 2×4 and longer pieces as levers. But will have to replace those with plastic wood that will not rot.
I was just really happy that we were able to replace the broken glass. The decision to use just one pane of the old double pane glass meant we had several panes left over to replace broken ones.
I don’t have firm numbers but the glazing on the Trombe wall has increased the heat we are experiencing inside. As the temperatures are in the 20’s and 30’s the heat set to 60 nighttime and 65 daytime is not turning on.
While the windows were still open and I could run a temp sensor to this inside meter the temperature under the glass got hot immediately with temps up to 130°. The inside wall heated up above the room’s temperature. It actually rose into the 80’s. As the room temperature fell with the outdoor temperatures the wall lost very little heat.
I need a wireless temperature sensor to record what is happening now that it is cold outside.
