Americans are asleep, post European windows

Should've installed linux 🤷
- Should've installed velux
  
  Velux just gone through the roof!
- I am referring to Linux as ‘tilted Windows’ from now on and you can’t stop me.
  
  No, Mac is tilted Windows, and Linux is open Windows.

I asked a builder why this was, and he said that the lateral forces created by a slightly tilted window has just enough force to rip the entire side of a house clean off due to houses having the structural integrity of wet newspaper, which is the preferred construction method in the States
- US people, dry your newspapers before building your houses!
- can't tell if this is a troll or not. youre telling me people outside the states think we live in wet newspaper?
  
  Well not wet newspaper exactly but I heard you have walls so thin the neighbours can hear your cell division
  
  Hitting a wall and having any chance of the wall breaking isn't really a thing outside the US. Everyone elsewhere notices that a lot in movies and videos. It's not uncommon for children outside America to ask adults why Americans have paper walls. People being mad and punching a wall and putting a fist-sized hole in it, falling and breaking the wall or throwing anything and the thing getting stuck in the wall. In most of the world it's you or the thing hitting the wall that'll break, not the wall itself.
  
  It's an intentional exaggeration, but it's true that houses in the US are usually built without a proper foundation and with thin walls.
  
  You know that tool called stud finder that you use in America if you ever think about hanging a picture on the wall, or a TV, otherwise you risk your wall falling down with anything attached to it?
  Never seen a stud finder in Europe.
- It's preferred because it's cheap.
  Nobody wants to pay a stone mason to put brick on the exterior of their homes. They used timber for a long time, but now all the new houses I've seen use the metal studs, which sounds great on paper until you realize it's basically sheet metal stamped into a U kind of shape that's the same size as a 2x4. It's enough to hold up the drywall and maybe some pictures/paintings on the wall plus the occasional wall-mounted TV, but give it a couple hundred pounds of weight and it's going to crumple into itself like aluminum foil.
  Honestly, most of the strength in the wall is now because of the drywall. The "studs" just keep them from falling over.
  Not saying timber was all that much better, but it could at least support someone standing on the top plate of a wall without folding in on itself.
  Can I get my house built from concrete board instead?
  
  I wish I could have a stone masonry building. My friend's family used to own a hotel built by a stone mason. He invited us out to watch the company who bought it try to demolish it. Apparently they weren't expecting proper brick and mortar to be so strong.
- Lol! Imagine thinking this is true.
  
  Lol imagine reading this as a true statement. Fiction books must fuck you right up 😂

I work in a hotel.
One day, a family comes to the reception to tell me that their window is broken, asking me to change their room. I ask if I can take a look.
It turns out, they didn't know the existence of tilt & turn windows and were scared that the window was going to fall down lol

I'd settle for socialized healthcare
- Oh the windows came as part of the deal.
  
  No they didn't. I'm in Canada and we have socialized healthcare and I didn't get any damn tilting Windows.
  I've been lied to!
  
  Damn, that's a tough decision
- How dare you. Just for one second think of someone other than yourself. How do you think the pharmaceutical companies are gonna feel about that? Or their poor shareholders? Pfizer's CEO only made $33 million last year. How the hell do you expect him to feed his kids when he's not making that much because your precious healthcare system ate into his meager earnings. The medical corporations are barely scraping by!!
  
  ~~CEO~~ Chief Job Creator™
  FTFY
- It's the breeze, isn't it?

Jokes on you, my windows make a light breeze when shut!

Imagine not having screens in your windows.
This post was made by the flying insects gang.
- I'm in the US and have these windows. They have screens. They're also not that special. I prefer the regular windows
  
  I was starting to wonder if Europe didn't have insects, because the hotels I've stayed in (in Europe) that had them didn't have screens for them.
  
  I have these windows in Moscow, Russia since recently (had old windows with separate wooden frames with thick glass made somewhere about 70s, they looked nice though) and like that I can use the sill as a table with laptop and tea and some stuff now, and tilt it instead of moving the laptop aside.

I don't use windows. I prefer linux
- Try not to talk about Linux on Lemmy challenge (impossible): failed.
- In a world without borders and walls there is no need for windows and gates.
- I wonder if you can tilt windows in Linux
  
  Do I have an article for you: Linux is the only OS to support diagonal PC monitor mode — dev champions the case for 22-degree-rotation computing
  
  Probably Compiz could do that..........
  
  23.9 degrees is optimal.

Put a screen in that fancy window and then we’ll talk.
- Yeah who the hell wants moths and mosquitoes in their house
  
  It is truly bizarre how Europeans never use screens, make it make sense!!
  
  There are no mosquitoes in the UK. And moths are rare. Would be lucky to see a fly.
- There are screens for tilt windows. You put them on the outside instead of the inside.
  
  Yeah, but most places in Europe don't have screens regardless.
- American with these windows. I have screens. I also don't like them very much.

In America we have to keep our windows closed to keep out the fent smoke and bullets.
- your walls won't save you from the latter tho
  
  Bullets are not ghosts, they can't go through walls, stupid

- One European downvoted you for speaking the truth
  
  I downvoted because I'm French.
- Correct me if I'm wrong, but that style of window doesn't allow you to open it fully, right?
  
  They open fully. The tilt feature is 10-15 degrees, but they swing open fully like a casement window in the US. At least the ones I used did.
- Yeah I mean of course not in a prison. Which cell block is that?
- Opening from the bottom is inherently worse
  
  it's inherently superior because you can have the window slam onto the fingers of a person trying to crawl in through the window
  
  They open from the top as well.
  
  The worse part is now they’re built cheaply so the screen is only the bottom half. You can still open the top, or from both top and bottom for convection, but now you get bugs
  
  Ok, our windows can open from the sides or tops as well :D
- That window design looks like it would never seal properly. Here in Germany any window from the last 30 years or more will not let any air in when its fully closed.
  
  Why wouldn't it seal?
  
  It seals. There's a small recess underneath the window lined with weather stripping that when pressure is applied from closing the window and even locking it, it becomes air tight.
  
  We actually have the opposite issue. Windows here seal so well that indoor air quality slowly drops if you don't run the central fan all day.
  
  Double hung windows don't seal quite as well as casement windows, but honestly, unless you're going to the absolute best energy efficiency possible, like a net-zero house, then it's really not a big difference. Any halfway decent quality, properly installed window won't have any noticeable drafts. Plus, as others have mentioned, double hung windows are far cheaper than casement.

While I agree that our windows are generally superior from a functional perspective, the Americans have us beat in the fact that you can't install a window AC unit in our windows.
Hence we get to just die in the increasingly common heat waves. Not great - we've got to figure this one out.
Before portable ACs are mentioned - I'll point out that they have terrible efficiency, and connecting the tube to blow out the hot air is still terrible with European windows.
- Mini split heat pumps.
  All you need is a 3cm hole in the wall to run a refrigerant line from the outside heat pump unit to the wall unit.
  Window AC units are pretty poor efficiency too, IIRC
  
  What if I can't make a 3cm hole cuz I'm a rentoid?
  
  This is likely going to be the answer, yeah, but I believe we need to see some improvements in installability for the average person - a window AC unit does afaik not require a specialist to install, while a mini split, while possible to tackle for a handy person, is a lot harder, leaving the average person to have to pay for someone to install the unit.
  Window ACs are not the best from an efficiency perspective, but they do beat portable units by a large margin.
  EDIT: looks like it might actually not even be legal in the EU to install a mini split yourself - you need to be certified to handle the refrigerants.
  Installation is also more than 50% of the total cost of acquisition, so we're hitting upon an affordability issue here as well.
  
  Not true, modern window units are very efficient
- Window mounted units are still terrible for comfort. External AC unit is like 300 euro + 300 euro for installation. It's not a big investment and you get totally silent unit. In Europe people will use portable units if it's short term and install external one if it's permanent.
  
  The quoted prices I saw for installation were a lot higher, more like 700 euro, but that probably depends on the cost of labour where you are.
  There are also non-monetary aspects to this issue - I'm not allowed to make any modifications to my facade on account of it being made out of asbestos, for example. I'd have to get a specialist to cut the hole to make that work. It's also a bit tricky to fit in an outside unit - or inside unit for that matter - on my walls.
  I'm in complete agreement that mini splits are superior, but the downsides do exist and need to be acknowledged.
- Integrated AC ftw bebeh

I admit I'm an American and my windows don't open that way, but I'm not sure why whoever made that meme thinks that means a light breeze can't come through them. Because... a light breeze can come through them.
- Yeah while the European windows are interesting I don't really get why having a window open 50 different ways is useful. It seems like an over-engineered solution to just cracking the window. I also can't imagine it's more reliable than the good ole vertical/horizontal sliding windows which are just a window in a track.
  Many houses in the northeast have the old school vertical sliding windows with an extra glass pane that can be dropped in front of the screen. This creates an air insulated barrier between the internal and external glass panes and even on the 100+ year old windows I've seen they insulate very well.
  
  The main purpose in my opinion is that when the window is tilted open, it's still almost as safe as when it's closed, while still giving you a breeze inside the house. Keep in mind that this windows are sturdy and quite heavy with often triple glass so is not something you easily brake or force.
  Newer model have crazy good insulation.

I can just slide my window up a bit.
- What quantifies a bit in this particular case?
  
  Just a tad. Hope that helps, thanks!

I get it's all memes and fun, but I am so tired of this constant 'Europe does this better', 'USA is supreme for that'.
- Irrelevant, Canada is clearly better than all of you.
  
  Canada is like USA but with French and you worship Britsh monarchs... Like you tried to get worst of both worlds
- Masses divided are easier to control
- They don’t have that problem in Australia.
- The only people that tire of it are the ones who lose the most 🙃
  
  Yes, you've clearly won at... uh... tilty windows? Good job 👍
  
  "Hey guys, constantly bashing each other is getting old"
  "That's because we're better than you!"
  You're acting way more 'merican than you realize.

Imagine not having AC like much of Europe
- Imagine not having enough insulation to need an AC.
  
  Lol have fun cooking with global warming bro
- Sometimes you just don't need it
  
  Or you live in Minnesota, where half the year it used to be unbearably cold so you needed central heat. Then half the year it was so goddamn humid and hot we needed central AC, or at least a window unit.
  We do get the benefit of having homes with a basement implied to protect both the pipes from freezing and our necks from tornadoes in December now
  
  Especially if the house is old, made with stones!
- The amount of energy wasted in America for all the houses with AC they have, could have propelled an entire society to Mars.

They aren't standard in the US, but I promise you these windows exist here. My parents installed them in their home
- Yep. Source: am in Colorado and have triple pane tilt turn windows, and know several others with them. They are super nice and slowly growing in popularity.
- Anyone who has worked in high-end construction can tell you that they're very common in rich people's houses. The reason you don't see them more often is that most people don't want to pay for them. Americans tend to value the size of their houses more than anything else, and since McMansion developers know this, windows are one very easy way to cut costs.
  They're also a lot more common in older homes (like mine) because if you're going to replace all your windows (which you should do for energy reasons), you might as well get the good ones.
  
  I have a middle income home with these windows. I prefer regular windows that go up and down.

Sorry Europeans, I can't hear you over my HVAC system with abundant domestic methane reserves.
- I wonder what it's like not living in an air filtered, 70° F environment?
  
  I prefer 70° C

It's not like our windows don't open, they just don't tilt. I frequently open the windows and get a breeze going when it's nice outside!
- Yes, but it's an inferior breeze.
  
  What does that even mean?
- With the weather outside today in my Australian town a nice 24°C temperature I have a window at each end of the house open.
  At one end of the house the window tilts (bottom out), the window at the other end other slides.
  The sliding window has much more space — half of the viewing area — open to the breeze than the tilting

People act like you can't just order these kinds of windows in the US. It's not the default, but you can just ask about them if you know about them.
- If you're in a position to replace your windows.
  
  You're right, when replacing your windows, it's all about form. Remember: lift with your legs, not with your back.
  (In case it isn't clear, I'm trying to spin a joke on the meaning of "in a position")
- They're also like three times the cost of standard windows, which is why most buildings don't have them.

Bruh many old homes in Europe don't have these fancy windows.
Source: WHERE ARE MY FUCKING TILTING WINDOWS!?
- Yeah, tilting and flipping and all all other crazy stuff is a fairly new thing .
  
  I have never seen non-tilting windows. At least in Germany, pretty much every house has these. These windows were invented around 1950 after all...

this is how we do out here in the heartland
- Ah I can hear that rattle now...

Lite breezes were great maybe 30 yrs ago. With modern heat waves and obesity you gonna sweat like a mofo 'les you figure out how to put an AC up in that tilt.
- Smog does it for me. Can barely ever open my windows to air out, I just get sickly car fumes mixed with rubber and asphalt particulates.
- Jokes on you, average heat wave in Europe is 25C (77 Freedom units)
  
  From June to August 2022, persistent heatwaves affected parts of Europe with a confirmed death toll of 24,501
  The highest temperature recorded was 47.0 °C
  
  It's not the mean that anyone remembers.

Southamerican living in Spain here.
First time I saw those windows my mind blew to pieces.
- I live in south america and have those windows in my house...

Lol wtf? Why can't you get a light breeze without tilting windows?
- Yeah I'm a little confused too. The thing with windows is that you get what you pay for. It's ridiculous to think that there's some kind of window design that's magically available in Europe but not in the US. There are probably designs that are more common in different parts of the world, but it's absolutely not the case that if a homeowner wants to pay for it they can't get whatever they want in the US.
  I have to think this post was made by someone who knows nothing about construction.
- The idea is protection from crime. You can have the window tilted and thieves theoretically cannot climb in through that window, where a swinging or sliding window while open allows someone to climb in through it
  Of course in practice they're less safe where they're popular as there is a tool, a hook, which allows someone breaking in to hook the handle, pull the tilted window shut, and open it again in swinging mode, allowing them in
  My understanding is sliding windows are the easiest to secure as you can bolt lock them at any point of openness. My sliding windows have bolt points at closed and at 5cm open

Ah, but that classic wood-on-wood sliding window, where all that stands between a destructive crash is an irreplaceable rope installed inside walls when the house was built.
- They aren't that difficult to repair if you have basic carpentry skills. All you have to do is take the sash out and open the side of the frame and you'll have access to the weight and pulley. They're designed to be pretty easy to do. YouTube probably has hundreds of videos on it. You just want to be careful about lead paint if it's an old house and you're producing dust or disturbing old paint.
- If your windows are 40+ years old, then sure. But that's not a thing anymore for modern windows.

I'm fine. Central HVAC, no need for a breeze

Imagine not having screens on the windows and letting every single bug in the nearby area take up residence inside and being okay with it cuz "it's only a few months out of the year".
🤢 it's the fucking worst.
- I have screens with my fancy European windows. Like there's no reason you can't have it with it.
  
  What witchcraft is this? Did it cost more to install? Was it custom ordered? Plz explain.

Or, know, we could just crack open the bottom (in the case of the popular double hung, the top) of the window a little bit. But it is-3c (yes, we Americans understand metric) where I am now, so I have no interest in doing that. No Gulf Stream keeping us relatively mild in winter over here.
Listen, you want to brag about health care, public transit, intercity high speed rail, or historic buildings, fine, you got us there. But stop with the air if superiority about everything else.
- Correct me if I am wrong because I really don't know. But if you crack the bottom open can't someone just slide the window open?
  
  They would have to break through the screen first. Us Americans prefer not to let bugs in. And if it’s really a worry, there are stops or locks that can be put in. But honestly, it’s nice sometimes. Saved me a locksmith call more than once.
  Of course, both windows could just be smashed. You want to tell me European homes are some kind of fortress that thieves can’t get in?
  
  they have a lock that stop them from sliding to far up. un do the lock and they slide all way up. most of one i have seen the lock locks when you pull the window down so you don't have worry about for getting it.
  
  That isn't even a concern in a place like Compton (I lived in South Gate which borders Compton and Watts). Because even in places with a lot of violence, you don't often get someone just coming through a window in the middle of the day if they see it open a crack because it's pretty easy to defend yourself against someone trying to come through your window.
  Now sure, if you leave them open like that at night, it's a bigger risk. But even then, home invasions mostly happen when no one is at home. Which makes sense.
- We DO have some fine historic buildings.
  They all come with tilting windows btw.

I tried finding a company who sold those windows in my city here in the USA and failed.
- You need to go through a window company and have them custom-made. They'll come over to your house and take measurements then build them at their factory and then install them. It will take a few weeks and will be expensive, but for my money it's worth it.
  Where I live Andersen is probably the best as they come with a forever warranty on everything including the glass itself, but they may or may not be in your area. There are plenty of other reputable companies as well. Again, this is not a cheap option.
  
  Thank you. I'll look into that option

America is huge. We have areas with weather just like Europe and areas with weather nothing like Europe. One country but many weathers.
- Europe is my favorite country
  
  Yep, didn't you know you get the exact same weather in Athens and in Oslo?
  
  The country of "America" is also a favorite.

Tilting you windows is a nice option that i rarely use. Most if the time its STOẞLÜFTEN as we germans like to say (opening the windows wide up to really let in all the fresh air).
- Is that not something that Americans do too? As far as I know the need for STOSSLÜFTEN is because we're building our buildings so air tight, that there is little circulation.
  
  Yeah, being able to open the window just slightly from a different angle doesn't seem like that useful of a feature. Also in the US we mostly have a different style of window (see below).
  It's rare that I want to open a window, but only slightly open it. Normally it's all the way open and I probably put box fan in the window to pull air through.
  You're correct that many houses these days are built too air tight, but for older houses that were built before AC the house was often designed so that you could open windows on different sides of the house to create a cross breeze. So for example, you could open up windows on the East and West side in the morning and the temperature difference should create a convection breeze through the house.
  https://images.thdstatic.com/productImages/b50b163e-4aad-437d-9ffc-9c9c6d58c51f/svn/american-craftsman-double-hung-windows-2438786-64_600.jpg

Never seen a tilting window in Finland
- Yeah but our specialty is triple panes. Insulation supremacy

Honestly, I think the verti slide windows make for a better breeze infrastructure than the tilt windows , because the tilt windows can be force shut by sudden strong winds.
And in the summer when I need a strong breeze at night and have to fully open the windows, I have to hold them open with a chair or something because they will slam-shut in the middle of the night.
I complain a lot about silly american building stuff but in the case of breezes, I think the verti slide is superior.
Also, they're more adjustable. Euro windows can do tilt or open, but the vertical slide windows have a range.
- Yeah, it may have a sliding range, but only for half the window. The top part just stays closed all the time. The euro windows can open fully. That, to me, makes all the difference.
  
  That is a good point.
  What about a double window, one EU and one US

You realize we have AC in Merica right?
Like, have you been to half of Europe in the summer?

I love EU windows, and i looked at them when i redid my windows recently... but i just couldn't justify the increase i price.
Of course, my windows are horizontal sliders

Over here in the USA, we “tilt” our windows on a vertical access, minimizing the effort involved to friction. We call it “opening” the window, because ergonomically it’s identical to opening a door.

Tilt it baby

My windows can tilt. Not in the same way, but you can either slide them up or tilt them in. And besides, is being able to tilt your windows really that great?
- Yes
- Sliding windows may not be optimal for a hard continental climate.
  For me it allows to not move anything on the sill while venting the room.
  
  I can do the same thing with my double hung windows, just open the too

I’m not sure why this would be an advantage? Does the tilt cause more draft than opening it a different way?
- Try any different way during a rain and You'll realize the difference.
  
  It's never warm enough when it's raining to warrant having the window open though. Maybe if you're in Arizona or the south of Spain.
- It is a security opening. People cannot climb through a tilted window
  There are, of course, tools to defeat those windows since they're popular.

What kind of klien bottle shit is this

Imagine being a European and having your head so far up your own ass you start to disappear

Am I the only American with tilting windows? We definitely have them

Good morning ~~Vietnam~~ Europe

Why would you post this while Americans are sleeping? These posts are clearly about flexing on the yanks.

Today you chose violence

I visited Bosten before, and if i can remember it right. Some of their windows can do that

What the fuck? This is witchcraft.
- That's funny you lot said the same thing in the 1600's!
  
  Fucking witches stole my garden gnomes!

Unfortunately windows in the UK generally cant tilt, likely since opening them wasn't really meant to be common anyways (unfortunately climate change is making that more important)

Cool, yes everyone knows the US sucks can someone help us who have to live in it now?
- Bomb it and start over
  
  No need for bombs. Give them 20-25 years and they will remove the 'United' part of The United States on their own and have to start over.

Americans:
- Until a surgery
  
  I used to work for AT&t and it was all to common get someone cancelling while crying because their life is over and their credit is ruined because of the cost of a surgery that could never afford to pay. Sometimes we'd give them a couple months or something but a system like that shouldn't exist
- Ya'll ain't seen the economy lately?

How well do these work in strong winds? Wouldn’t they just turn your light breeze into a strong breeze?

This is not a flex, these are just worse then sliding windows lol. Something like bidets are clear upgrades, but this ain't it.
- I live in an area with -30 Celsius sometimes (once or twice in my life, haha, but -20 would work too), with sliding windows there'd be ice inside.
  
  How would sliding windows change that
- Agreed. A sliding window can be securely locked partially open. Tilt swing windows aren't secure enough to leave a window open while away

They seem expensive.
- Not really. What you see on the picture can be had for as little as like 200-300 EUR depending on the glazing, moreover it's not something you buy every day - usually only when you renovate every 10-15 years or whatever.
  
  That IS expensive.