You might think a window is a window and glass is glass, but it’s always best to take some basic rules into account when designing your windows and choosing the right quality of glass. Here, the orientation of the window in particular is a very important factor. The trick is to optimise thermal insulation, solar gains, and natural lighting in every situation.
The importance of natural light cannot be overemphasised. Natural light gives peace of mind and ensures that you can see all objects in their correct colour rendering. It’s better and more pleasant than artificial light and regulates the human body’s biorhythms. Plus, it’s free, doesn’t pollute, and is inexhaustible. Perfectly sustainable!

Northern orientation

For north–facing windows, consider the low incidence of sunlight at dawn and dusk in summer. Many north–facing windows provide cool light that diffuses well. Light from the north is the ideal light in which to work. Your kitchen, your office, your workshop or craft room… all will certainly benefit from a north–facing window. The north side is, however, the coldest side though. So it’s best to choose super-insulating or even triple-glazing for these windows, so that you don’t suffer from cold draughts from the glass inside on cold days.

Southern orientation

The south side is obviously the sunny side. South–facing windows let in warm, direct sunlight that changes constantly as the time passes. This is particularly enjoyable in your living spaces, but good exterior shading – via a screen, for example – is certainly not a luxury. This applies to all large windows that get a lot of sunlight, by the way. Not only for southern windows, but also for windows that face south-east and south-west. This way, you can prevent overheating and an air conditioner that has to work expensive overtime. Ideally, a glass type with a low solar factor (g value) combined with a more or less high light transmission (LT value) should be used. This may sound rather technical but Group Ceyssens can advise you perfectly on this.

Eastern and western orientation

If you want to draw in a lot of sunlight via east- and west-facing windows, you should opt more for low, horizontally placed windows there. This way, the natural light will shine deep into the house when the sun is low throughout the whole year.