Anthony Matonak wrote:

Nick further proposes that people could use video cameras outside
and TV screens inside to take the place of windows. This would let
them look outside without an actual, real, window.

I then proceeded to put some numbers to this video-window proposal
to show that it's not economical at this time.

That depends on the resolution. I proposed $135 windows. I'd probably
notice that the view doesn't change when I walk around the room, but
a few "windows" like this might be nice for non-critical views.

PA has about 5500 (F) HDD/year, so a square foot of R30 wall would
lose 24hx5500x1ft^2/R30 = 4400 Btu of heat per winter worth 1.3 cents
at 10 cents/kWh. A square foot of R3 window would lose about 13 cents,
or maybe twice that, counting the framing and air leakage. A 2400 ft^2
house with 8% of the floorspace (192 ft^2) as non-south windows might
lose $50/year through the windows.

If each of 32 2'x3' windows costs $100, and framing and installation
double that, a window house might cost $6400-4320 = $2080 more than
a house with 32 20" flat screens with VGA resolution.

The following is an example of what we are talking about.
http://hoagy.org/virtualwindow/

Bill Gates allegedly has a house with something like this on the walls,
as well as windows.

Nick