Storm Windows Research Articles

Historic Spatial Patterns of Storm-Driven Compound Events in UK Estuaries

AbstractCompound estuarine flooding is driven by extreme sea-levels and river discharge occurring concurrently, or in close succession, and threatens low-lying coastal regions worldwide. We hypothesise that these drivers of flooding rarely occur independently and co-operate at sub-daily timescales. This research aimed to identify regions and individual estuaries within Britain susceptible to storm-driven compound events, using 27 tide gauges linked to 126 river gauges covering a 30-year record. Five methods were evaluated, based on daily mean, daily maximum, and instantaneous 15-min discharge data to identify extremes in the river records, with corresponding skew surges identified within a ‘storm window’ based on average hydrograph duration. The durations, relative timings, and overlap of these extreme events were also calculated. Dependence between extreme skew surge and river discharge in Britain displayed a clear east–west split, with gauges on the west coast showing stronger correlations up to 0.33. Interpreting dependence based on correlation alone can be misleading and should be considered alongside number of historic extreme events. The analyses identified 46 gauges, notably the Rivers Lune and Orchy, where there has been the greatest chance and most occurrences of river-sea extremes coinciding, and where these events readily overlapped one another. Our results were sensitive to the analysis method used. Most notably, daily mean discharge underestimated peaks in the record and did not accurately capture likelihood of compound events in 68% of estuaries. This has implications for future flood risk in Britain, whereby studies should capture sub-daily timescale and concurrent sea-fluvial climatology to support long-term flood management plans.

A Systematic Review of Energy Efficiency Home Retrofit Evaluation Studies

We systematically review studies evaluating the energy savings and cost-effectiveness of residential energy efficiency retrofit programs. We review 39 evaluations of 23 residential retrofit programs that were evaluated between 1984 and 2021. Our sample is restricted to program evaluations that used postretrofit household energy billing or consumption data from 140,977 retrofitted households. We report four primary findings. First, none of the studies in our sample reported deep energy savings (e.g., 50% or greater) from retrofit programs. The mean reduction in measured electricity and/or fuel consumption due to energy efficiency retrofits for all programs included in our sample was roughly 7.2%. However, because many households use both fuel and electricity, total household energy savings from the retrofit programs evaluated in our sample are probably smaller. Second, reported program savings decreased as the internal validity of study design increased. Third, as measured by realized savings and cost-effectiveness, the most promising retrofits were insulation and programmable thermostats, whereas the least promising retrofits were storm windows and doors. Fourth, programs with high reported savings and low costs of conserved energy served low-income, fuel-heated households exclusively.

748 The Calm After the Storm? Burn Injury Incidence Following Hurricanes and Tropical Storms

Abstract Introduction In recent years, we have noted a pattern of a surges in burn admissions occurring in the wake of some of the larger storm events occurring in our region. Many injuries incurred in the activities related to the storms’ aftermath— accelerate related burns from burning debris, generator explosions, and electrical repair burns. It is suspected that conditions created by larger storms may increase the population-wide risk for burn injuries for some time after the storm itself. If trues, this would suggest a need for more concerted burn prevention efforts in the wake of major natural disasters. The purpose of this study was to identify whether there is indeed a predictable surge in burn injuries relationships between seasonal variation and burn injuries in one catchment area of a regional center. We hypothesize that there is an underlying association between significant storms and an increased number of burn-related injuries before and after storms. Methods Using a retrospective approach, we examined burn center admission data from 2007–2018 (N=4,637) to include burns in the week prior to and three weeks after hurricane or tropical storm events (a storm window) in our state. This dataset only examined burns in which patients were admitted greater than 20 hours to exclude any confounding follow-up visits. Results Using Poisson regression to evaluate the effect of the storm window has on the number of daily admissions, there was found to be no significant association in respect to daily case totals (p=.165) when comparing across all years in respect to storm windows. When examining data from 2017 and 2018; years in which severe storms (category 4+) hit the state of Florida, there was found to be a significant increase in the number of daily burn admissions during the storm window by about 39% (p=0.039) as compared to 2015 when no storms hit the state. Conclusions It is hypothesized that a significant association of injuries were found in later years due to the ever-increasing intensity of storms hitting the state. Public awareness should be directed to the dangers of burns and related injuries in the wake of major weather events, i.e. before and after storms. In addition, further studies should examine the relationships between injuries and weather-related events. Applicability of Research to Practice Awareness of a tendency for burn injuries and admissions to surge after major storms could be used to improve the timing and content of burn prevention response to these incidents.

Carlotta Speaks: The Letters of Carlotta Monterey O'Neill to Gene Baker McComas, 1918–1952

Carlotta Speaks: The Letters of Carlotta Monterey O'Neill to Gene Baker McComas, 1918–1952

Mildly zigzag heat transfer affected by aspect ratios for recirculating flows in rectangular enclosures

In past decades, although buoyancy-driven recirculating flows in rectangular enclosures (left hot wall, right cold wall, insulated top and bottom) have been intensively studied as a benchmark problem, there exist interesting Nusselt-number characteristics that have been unreported in the literature. As the enclosure widens, the average Nusselt number exhibits mildly zigzag behaviors, namely, decreasing first, reaching a local minimum, then rising, reaching a local maximum, and finally decreasing again. The first extremum is associated with the competition between heat convection and heat conduction, as well as the former’s victory in terms of the magnitude of the slope (the derivative of the heat transfer as a function of the aspect ratio), whereas the second extremum occurs when the heat convection dominates the overall heat conduction. Our study may shed the light on various thermal-system designs that desire either maximal insulation (e.g., storm windows and energy storage) or maximal cooling (e.g., LED and other electronic devices).

ANALYSIS OF SINGLE PANE WINDOW REPLACEMENT

INTRODUCTION An engineering and economic analysis of energy loss through single paned windows in a large college building is presented. The goal of this work was to determine an economically viable solution for Marietta College to save on energy costs. Based on the model presented, the economics of double paned window installation are investigated. An alternative solution employing the addition of storm windows to the existing single paned windows has yielded very exciting results. While double paned windows are generally the first thought when it comes to energy efficient windows, this work shows that storm window addition yields a much lower investment and quicker payback period for this specific building. The engineering analysis and experimental technique presented can be used to investigate the cost benefit of single paned window upgrades for other buildings.

Thermal performance of secondary glazing as a retrofit alternative for single-glazed windows

Secondary glazing (or internal storm windows) can be used as a functional alternative to retrofitted insulated glazing units (IGUs) in existing domestic single-glazed window frames. This work investigated the thermal transmittance of four secondary-glazing products – plastic film, magnetically attached plastic sheet, plain and low-E glass.Thermal transmittance measurements were made on a typical New Zealand single-glazed aluminium window, to the method of ASTM C 1199 using a guarded hot box (GHB). Four different secondary-glazing systems were then retrofitted into the window and the thermal transmission measurements determined.All four of the secondary glazing options provided significant thermal improvements to the single-glazed window (0.15m2K/W), with R-values from 0.34 to 0.57m2K/W. Each was also modelled in Window 6 software, with the results found to be within the GHB measurement error. The performance exceeded the expected performance of double glazing retrofitted into the existing framing due to the secondary glazing effectively insulating the framing.

Method to Diagnose Window Failures and Measure U-Factors on Site

Windows are an essential part of buildings due to the requirement for natural light, views, and fresh air. However, windows are thermally the weakest bridge in a building due to their high thermal conductivity. Therefore, window U-factor (thermal transmittance) information is indispensable in calculating the overall energy load of a building. U-factors of windows, however, are difficult to obtain on-site because the label mounted on a window exhibiting its U-factor is typically removed after its installation. Further, it is almost impossible to detect any of a variety of window failures, such as the loss of insulating gases, leaky or cracked windows, and localized air leakage, simply by visual inspection. In this study, a novel technique to measure window U-factor in the field by measuring four temperatures (interior and exterior air temperatures, and interior and exterior window surface temperatures) is presented. Experimental and field tests on various types of full-scale windows have been performed to obtain their field-measured U-factors. Experimental results show that the field-measured U-factors match within 8% of the rated U-factors of the windows. Several assemblies combining storm windows with single- or double-pane windows were tested and the combined U-factors of the assemblies were measured and the readings were compared with the U-factors estimated by ASHRAE. In another test, argon from a double-pane window was removed deliberately and results confirmed the leakage using the proposed method. In addition, field tests at five different buildings were performed and the comparison between measured and rated (or estimated) U-factors is presented.

Evolution: The Development of Intelligent Double-Skin Facades

The use of intelligent double-skin facades, sometimes referred to as "double facades", is attracting increasing amounts of interests from the architects throughout the world, due to the characteristics such as ecology, durability, use of natural resources, etc. This paper is written from the architectural history point of view, and gives a brief description about the development of the intelligent double-skin façade systems, from the old storm windows to modern double-skin systems, and suggests further research possibilities in this field.

CONSUMER THEORY, HOME PRODUCTION, AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Arguments about the existence of the so‐called energy efficiency gap are typically based on evaluations of efficiency measures as investments whose end result is to reduce the cost of providing a given level of energy services. This article demonstrates that the investment approach tends to undervalue energy efficiency improvements because it omits the increase in utility that results from the consumer's substitution of energy services for other goods. The substitution occurs because the efficiency measure reduces the marginal cost (implicit price) of energy services. Sample calculations based on a Cobb‐Douglas utility function are used to illustrate the potential size of the undervaluation of efficiency investments.

Ralston

Ralston Stuart Dybek I remember the year, the morning, the very moment that my life as a writer began. I remember exactly what I wrote, the phrase that transformed words into a thrill—a discovery that set the act ofwriting free from the cell of a school subject called English. English was spelling tests, diagramming , tedious exercises in workbooks, but writing became a jailbreak ofthe imagination. What I don't remember, and so still don't understand, is why in that same year I went from a student with straight A's in Religion and no check marks in Conduct—a kid who just the grade before had been told by the nun that he might have a chance to become the first St. Stuart— to a bad boy. It was a winter morning in fourth grade. I'd been awakened during the night by the sound of my mother retching in the bathroom, and so wasn't surprised when she didn't get me up for school. Instead, my father, who should have already been at work at the Harvester plant where he was a foreman, shook me awake a good hour earlier than necessary. "Rise and shine, sonny boy," he said, "Ma's got the flu. You've got to get yourselfoffto school. The snow's coming down out there so wear your earmuffs and galoshes. I made your breakfast. It's on the table."Then he rushed off, late. My winter routine was to drape my underwear for the next day on the radiator each night before going to bed. In the morning, I'd reach for the warm underwear, then strip my flannel pajamas off under the feathertick piersyna in which my grandmother had once swaddled her firstborn son, my father, when they'd come across from Poland. But this morning I noticed that my underwear was barely warm. I guessed that, with my mother sick, my father hadn't had a chance to stoke the furnace at his regular hour. "Ralston" is scheduled to appear in the anthology, The Eleventh Draft: Craft and the Writing Life from the IowaWriter's Workshop, edited by Frank Conny, HarperCollins, 1999. 6 Fourth Genre A year earlier, my father had bought the six-flat apartment building to which we'd moved. The steam heat for each apartment was generated by a coal furnace in the basement. Now that he was a landlord, my father would rise at 5:00 A.M. on winter mornings to stoke the furnace before leaving for work. Ifhe didn't, Mrs. Boudena, the tenant right above us, would bang on her radiator, a sound something like convicts raking their tin cups on the prison bars. But she was quiet today, perhaps in deference to the snow-muffled grind of traffic on 25th Street. And minus the sound of the radio my mother always played, broadcasting news, weather, and Frank Sinatra, our apartment was not only chillier but quieter than usual, too. The light seemed faint and frosted as it filtered through screens clotted with snow; one of my father's many planned projects was storm windows, but we couldn't afford them yet. I sat down at the kitchen table before the breakfast he'd made for me: a bowl of Hot Ralston and a mug of chocolate-flavored Ovattine. On good days breakfast might be French toast with Log Cabin Syrup poured from the chimney spout ofa tin can shaped like a log cabin, washed down with the hot chocolate my mother beat from scratch into a foam dusted with cinnamon and topped with Marshmallow Fluff. Or eggs, softboiled ifmy mother made them, served with toast and a strip of bacon, or, as my father made them on Sunday mornings, scrambled with sliced kielbasa . Usually though, breakfast was cereal, which was perfectly fine until the weather turned cold. Then the Rice Krispies, PuffedWheat, Kix, Cheerios, andWheaties would be put away like summer clothes, to be replaced by hot, stick-to-the-ribs cereals: oatmeal, okay if camouflaged by raisins and honey, or Cream of Wheat, which even the dissolving nuggets of brown sugar barely made palatable. Worse by far was Hot Ralston. Hot...

Determinants of program effectiveness: Results of the national weatherization evaluation

The findings of a national evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's low-income Weatherization Assistance Program (“Program”) are used to explain variations in Program effectiveness. Overall, the Program was found to be a cost-effective federal investment. However, local weatherization agencies vary greatly in the effectiveness of their operators, and the energy saved by individual dwellings ranges widely. By applying four different analytic approaches, we identify several determinants of high energy savings, including the following: weatherizing high energy users; installing attic, wall, and floor insulation; insulating water heaters, installing low-flow showerheads, and reducing hot water temperatures; curing distribution system problems; and replacing inefficient heating systems. The installation of storm windows and doors, on the other hand, generally is associated with inferior savings. This paper demonstrates the value of using alternative but complementary qualitative and quantitative methods to identify determinants of Program effectiveness.

Environmental control of indoor biologic agents

Environmental control of indoor biologic agents

Environmental control of indoor biologic agents

The indoor environment contains unique pollutants, such as environmental tobacco smoke and indoor allergens. In addition, air pollutants may reach higher levels indoors than outdoors, and in some instances may exceed the national standards for outdoor exposure. Nonindustrial indoor settings, such as offices, residences, and vehicles, also have air quality problems. Although the role of occupational air pollutants (organic and inorganic) in causing complaints in the workplace has been clearly documented, the relationship between poor air quality and health complaints is often controversial. The main causes of poor indoor air quality are an inadequate ventilation or fresh air intake, biologic contamination of the indoor environment, and an accumulation of noxious compounds. A list of important indoor air pollutants is shown in Table I. Because indoor allergen concentrations are higher in homes than in public places, a greater effort should be made to control allergens at home. A reason for this difference may be the more aggressive chemical treatment of carpets in public places. However, in some instances high mite, cat, and dog allergen levels have been detected in schools and day care centers. These findings have important implications for families who are practicing allergen avoidance at home because the effort and time spent controlling allergen exposure could be jeopardized by exposure in the school environment.' Studies conducted in schools have demonstrated that carpets contain high levels of a variety of allergens including pollen, cat, dog, food, mite, and mold allergens.2 Carpets in schools and homes are an important reservoir of allergens.

Effect of Thermal Improvements in Housing on Residential Energy Demand

Many estimates of the savings resulting from energy conserving modifications to a house do not take into account the role that such modifications play in the production of house warmth. Consumers can be expected to take some of these savings in increased house warmth as well as in lower demand for residential energy. The model estimated in this paper shows that when this effect is accounted for savings in energy due to energy conserving modifications are considerably less than anticipated without this effect.

Seasonal affective disorder in a spinal cord injury population.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) has received formal research attention only within the last eight years. Diagnostic criteria for SAD include many characteristics typical of depression: sadness, low self-esteem, lack of energy, social withdrawal, and suicide ideation, and features of atypical depression: carbohydrate craving, overeating, weight gain, and hypersomnia. Differential diagnosis of the disorder depends on an onset in fall/winter and remission in spring/summer. It was hypothesized that spinal cord injury (SCI) patients would have a higher incidence of the disorder in the northern latitudes because of decreased outdoor activities in winter and because of such light-depriving winter survival tactics as installing opaque plastic for storm windows. SCI patient responded to a postal survey which included Rosenthal's Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Results showed a substantially higher rate of SAD among SCI patients than in the normative sample.

Determinants of energy savings and increases after installing energy-conserving devices

The purposes of this paper were to describe the savings and increases in energy that households accrued after installing retrofit devices and to identify factors that differentiated savers (those who used less energy after retrofit than before) from those who used more energy after installing retrofit devices than before. The data were a longitudinal component of the Residential Energy Consumption Survey, U.S. Department of Energy. Twenty percent of consumers who installed retrofit measures in 1982 consumed more energy in 1983, than prior to installation in 1981. Twenty-nine percent did not change consumption and 51% saved energy. While most households saved energy used for heating and cooling, some offset these savings by increasing energy used for other purposes, such as appliances and water heating. Logit analyses showed that savers were more likely to have experienced heftier price increases, consumed more energy prior to retrofit, and installed storm windows than those with greater post- than pre-retrofit consumption. Compared with savers, those increasing energy use over time had roomier houses, greater income boosts, higher ratios of energy expenditures to incomes, larger households and increases in household size, and were more likely to have retired or installed a freezer.

Multiple modeling of propensity to adopt residential energy conservation retrofits

This paper concerns the propensity of American homeowners to adopt three residential energy conserving practices (adding insulation, adding storm doors or windows, adding caulking or weatherstripping). We present an analysis of the National Interim Energy Consumption Survey of 1978–1979 using two distinct statistical models: the multivariate log-linear/logistic model, and the multivariate structural probit model with latent variables. The two models are shown to be complementary.

Case study: Cordless drill: Rejuvenating a product

He had asked her to leave the porch light on, but she hadn't. Now he would have to return tomorrow to do the job. The contractor, who was to install storm windows on the woman's house while she was away, had nowhere to plug in his electric drill; he had planned to insert a plug receptacle into the porch light fixture, but with the power switch inside the house turned off, this would be futile.

John Prine's Lyrics

John Prine has been an important American songwriter since the early 1970s. With the release in 1979 and 1980 of his sixth and seventh albums, Pink Cadillac and Storm Windows, he rounded out the seventies in characteristic style. The new group of songs combined his established strength as a writer with a significant shift in musical emphasis to demonstrate that the voice first heard in 1971 on John Prine was still unique, compelling, and evolving in challenging ways. More recently, Prine has struck out on his own, and his two latest albums, Aimless Love (1984) and German Afternoons (1986), have been produced by his own company, Oh Boy Records. Although born and raised in the western Chicago suburb of Maywood, Prine has country roots, which he announces on his first album: