Green as well as Gold…
Installing double glazing can reduce heat loss through windows by half. If you can’t afford to replace all the windows, why not choose the rooms that cost you the most to heat?
How it works
Double glazing works by trapping air between two panes of glass, creating an insulating barrier that reduces heat loss, noise and condensation.
The savings
Double glazing reduces heat loss through windows by half and installing Energy Saving recommended double glazing can save around £140 a year on your heating bills. Double glazing can save a household around 720kg of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) a year.
Annual saving (£/yr)
CO 2 saving per year with double glazing = approximately 720kg;
Approximately £140 per year.
How the savings add up
If everyone in the UK who needed double glazing had it fitted, we would save the equivalent of around 770,000 households’ CO 2 emissions.
Information Collected from the Green Consumer
Double-glazing can halve heat loss through windows. The optimum space between two panes of glass is 20mm. A smaller space leads to greater heat loss and a larger space makes little difference to the level of thermal insulation.
Super Spacer Bar
There are many benefits of installing windows with Super Spacer. This reduces condensation by up to 70%, virtually eliminating the potential breeding ground for bacteria, mould and dust mites that can be harmful to people with respiratory diseases. Super Spacer also reduces noise transmission by up to 2dB which helps keep your home as an oasis of calm, away from the noise of the outside World. Super Spacer is 950 times less conductive than traditional aluminium spacers and, as most of the heat loss through a window occurs at the edge of the unit, standard metal spacer bars act as a thermal energy drain allowing heat to escape from your home. Super Spacer blocks the escape route therefore helping to further reduce your carbon foot print even more.
Low E Glass
Low emissivity glass – for extra energy efficiency…… If low emissivity glass or Low-E as it is often called is used, even more energy can be saved. A microscopically thin-coating on one surface of high quality glass makes this possible.
The glass forms the inner pane of a double glazing unit and the coating faces the cavity. The coating reflects longer wavelength heat from radiators and room surfaces back into the building. Meanwhile it allows the entry of warming short wavelength solar energy.
Conveniently, these incoming short wavelengths of solar energy are re-radiated by internal building surfaces as longer wavelengths, which are then reflected by the coating, back into the room.
Double glazing using Low-E glass has energy conservation properties as good as normal triple glazing, without the 50% increase in weight.
Advantages of Low E Glass
o Improves insulation
o Reduces heating bills
o Reduces carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere
o Reduces condensation
o Reduces cold spots and down draughts
o Makes good use of the sun’s heat
o Durable
o Available on laminated, toughened and ordinary glass
Energy saving is further improved if an inert gas such as argon is enclosed in the units instead of air. This also means that you can sit closer to the windows and feel less cold because double glazing with Low-E has a higher internal surface temperature than conventional double or single glazing. Also, the reduction in condensation means frames and surrounding surfaces will need less maintenance.
Low-E looks identical to ordinary clear glass. The coating is almost invisible, except in rare instances where strong oblique lighting may cause it to resemble a transparent film for a short time. Its effect on light transmission and reflection is barely noticeable.
Low-E-Glass – Low E glass is a form of glass which when added to double glazing allows you to save even more energy.
Typically double glazing using Low-E glass has energy conservation properties as good as normal triple glazing but without the 50% increase in weight.
The advantages of using Low-E glass are: better heat insulation; reduced heating bills; reduced carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere; reduced condensation on window frames internally
Installing argon gas within the sealed units instead of air can have even greater energy savings. Argon is an inert gas, which has better thermal properties than dry air. In the UK we express the rate of heat loss in ‘U values’. The lower the U value, the greater the thermal insulation and savings on your fuel bill.
Typical U values
The U value of single clear glass is 5.4. With ordinary double glazing this is improved to 2.6 and with Low-E glass the U value is reduced to 1.8. If argon gas is used to fill the air gap, the U value will reduce to 1.6 and If you then introduce Planitherm glass and super spacer you can acheve an amazing U value of 1.1.
Goldseal Has now become a Planitherm installer to help save energy
What Is Energy Efficient Glass?
A staggering 26% of all domestic heat loss escapes throug windows. Installing energy efficient windows can save you up to 28% per year on your heating bills compared to traditional windows and frames. Research has shown that many homeowners assume that all double glazing is equally energy efficient. In fact, there are huge differences in performance and it is the glass that makes the difference.
PLANITHERM is a new generation of energy saving window glass and is the most energy efficient window glass available. The advanced coating technology reflects radiated heat back into the room, rather than allowing it to escape through the windows. At the same time, PLANITHERM allows heat and light from the sun to pass through the glass. The result is lighter, brighter, warmer and more energy efficient homes thanks to the advanced thermal insulation of PLANITHERM. This is three times more efficient than single glazed units, and at least 25% more efficient than most currently installed double glazing.
