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Double glazing units have two panes of glass separated by air or an inert gas. They help to reduce heat transference from within a room to the outside. As a result, they have become one of the things that people considering insulation and energy efficiency for their home think about installing. They are now fitted as standard in new builds.

Improvements

Increasingly, manufacturers have realised that they can even improve on insulation by using three or even four panes of glass rather than just two. Typically, panes vary in width between 3 mm and 10 mm but ultimately they can be made to a client’s specification.

Triple glazed UPVC windowsare becoming more widespread and improvements in manufacturing techniques have led to increasing the width of the space between panes and actually coating panes to further increase insulation. Inert gas, often argon and more recently krypton, is now used as well. Even though windows are still the weak points within a building, they now have greatly improved insulation. The quality of the product is critical.

Research

The PassivHaus Institute in Germany has done research on the subject of glazing and the temperatures on the surface of the glass if a room is at 21°C and conditions outside are very cold. The temperature of a single pane was found to be 1°C, 10°C below a typical double glazed unit that is 15 years old. Modern manufacturing has improved units so that the temperature achieved can improve by a further 5°C. However, triple glazing improves the warmth even more. It means that extra little bit of comfort even if it does not greatly reduce a typical energy bill.

There is more to the calculations than simply looking at the glass content of a glazed unit. In order to improve a building’s insulation and hence its energy efficiency the frames of the unit must provide good insulation as well. UPVC is regularly used in such units. It is very durable and fairly maintenance free. There are no colour restrictions either.

Offset Costs

Although there are costs involved in installing new windows, they should certainly result in the house using less energy, especially in the winter. Anyone thinking about getting this work done should be able to get extremely competitive finance rates at present. Interest rates look unlikely to move until late autumn at the latest. If the payments are spread over many months then the reduced energy bills will help offset those installation costs.

It may not be possible to put an accurate figure on the energy savings but the cost of the work and any finance involved are easy to obtain. Good suppliers will certainly quote without the enquirer being committed in any way. The high-pressure salesmen are long gone as far as quality glazing companies are concerned. They rely on their reputation and the quality of their products. That is quite sufficient for them to trade successfully.