repurposing windows from a friend?

[zengrrl]

One of my friends was complaining that her lakehouse has huge windows but they don't open, no screens etc so she was going to have them replaced. We're building our coop and its HUGE. I personally am looking for windows that can open for ventilation but it might not hurt to have some for that would let the light in right?

This is the before picture so you can get an idea of the size I'm dealing with. The walls are rotted and have been taken out but they'll be replaced and the underhang with the cement/pavers will be the run.

 

[NewInCentralIowa]

Zengrrl,

Those windows would be perfect on the southside of the coop, not only to let light in but would provide some passive solar heat in the winter time. I don't know if you are familiar with passive solar heating/cooling but it is quite an economical way to heat & cool your flock. I can't tell which side of your coop is south but feel free to pm me and I can give you some more detail.

Pete

 

[Noymira]

Quote:
I agree with Pete! I have some garage door panels with glass I'm hoping to use on my coop for passive solar gain. I'm still hoping to find some windows that open and close too, or I will use the same garage door panels as windows that can be bolted/screwed on only in the winter over hardware cloth covered openings.

 

[Emmalion]

Maybe you can add some heavy duty hinges on the windows so you can prop them open a little for ventilation and then just close them when need be.

 

[zookeeper15133]

A County Park Farm near me has windows that permanently tilt in. The bottom is flush with the wall and the top is tilted in about a foot. This is done by framing them in at an angle with a triangle of frame on each side to hold them in place. The outside is screened in. This gives a good bit of ventilation while still protecting the coop from the weather.

 

[ralleia]

The windows would work fine--I saved all my double pane windows when we replaced ours with triple-pane.

Regarding passive solar, you'll want to shade them in the summer to keep from cooking your flock. We have several south-facing windows on our house which provide nice solar gain on sunny days in the winter, but require shading in the summer.

Also, since most residential chicken coops are small and rather "leaky" as far as air goes, I wouldn't expect to gain much benefit from a passive solar approach unless it were well-planned and implemented. The time of the day that the chickens are most in need of warmth in the winter will be around 4-6 a.m., when the temperatures are the lowest, and when there is no sun. A thermal mass built to collect the direct sunlight would help to even things out a bit, but I don't know how complicated you want to get. This is one of the subjects that I studied in engineering school.

For lighting considerations, north-facing windows provide the best indirect light without contributing to glare. East and west windows will be a glare problem, and west-facing windows will also be a heat problem in the summer unless shaded.