Glazing and Glass Options

When you have insulated your floors, ceiling, and walls, the next thing which might cause heat loss is likely going to be windows and other glazings such as glass doors and skylights. More houses are beginning to embrace the double and secondary glazing as new ways of combating heat loss.

Double glazing or secondary glazing is likely going to make a big difference to the comfort levels in your house. When you combine it with insulation in the ceilings, walls, and floor, double glazing your windows and doors will help in reducing heat loss, cooling and heating costs, and condensation on the glass.

The investment might be worthwhile, a healthier, warmer, quieter home with power bills that are lower. There are several things which you need to consider with your designer, builder, or the window supplier about which is the best option.

Making the right glazing decisions

When you make the right glazing choices, it is going to help in ensuring that your home becomes more comfortable in both cold and hot weather whether you are renovating or building a new home.

You will have to consider retrofitting secondary glazing to the existing windows or replacing the existing windows with the double glazed windows. The orientation and amount of glazing for your home will largely depend on the microclimate and climate of your site. Temperature, wind, sun angles, and proximity to the coast will influence the decisions in regard to type, size, and the placement of the areas to be glazed.

There are various glazing options that are available with some keeping the heat inside while others keep the noise, heat, light, and glare out. If you are replacing door frames or windows or building new ones, and want to glaze, there will be a need to choose the right frames as this will be able to help in getting quality performance out of the skylight, windows, and glazed doors.

Glass options

There are a variety of glasses which are available for triple and double glazing other than the standard clear one, which includes:

• Low emissivity glass at times referred to as glass that is low-E which lets heat and light in but at the same time, prevents the heat from escaping.
• Laminated glass consists of two glass sheets which are bonded with a resin or plastic layer. It has the ability to absorb the ultraviolet rays together with some heat and it could be the best when you want to reduce noise. When it is hit, the glass tends to be held together by the resin layer.
• Reflective glass, spectrally selective glass, and tinted glass which reduce the amount of light and heat which can be able to get in, and thus, it is the best when you want to keep the summer heat out. The treatment type of the glass will determine whether radiant heat/infrared light, ultraviolet light, or visible light will be filtered out. The ultraviolet light tends to cause fading.
• Toughened glass tends to be much stronger as compared to the standard glass. It is a glass that is designed to withstand the direct impacts and at the same time, if broken, shatter into small chunks.

What is triple glazing?

Triple glazing comprises three panels which are normally separated by air gaps to be able to provide high levels of noise reduction and heat retention. It is the best option for very cold or very noisy localities but it tends to be extremely expensive.

Insulated glazing units and reduction of noise

When it comes to noise, glass is the weakest barrier in a building. When you use the standard double glazing, it will provide little improvement to single glazing for most of the existing sound frequencies but might not work for low noise frequencies.

Triple glazing tends to be better. So if your problem is noise, you can use a laminated glass combined with thicker glass. There are some laminated glasses that come with a thicker acoustic inside layer which increases the air gap in the double glazing design.

When you open the window, it will increase the levels of noise, and thus, you will have to consider the best way in which to manage the ventilation if you are having an issue with the noise from outside. Alternatively, you can consider going for secondary glazing which can be a better option for being able to block the noise from outside.

Secondary glazing and other options

Secondary glazing means that you are going to insert a second glass pane or acrylic beside the existing window frame thereby creating an air gap in between the panes. It tends to be an alternative to the windows which are double glazed. You can keep the structural features and the timber reveals the window. You will need to check with a professional from a reliable company such as VidroGroup to find out if the option is right for you.

You have an option of choosing the glass that is low-E or the tinted glass to do your secondary glazing and using different systems, you can be able to exchange the insect screens panes which are placed on the windows during summertime.

It is generally cheaper to use secondary glazing and the glass or acrylic of the secondary glazed systems tends to perform even better in some types of double glazing. But there are some types that are visually intrusive and can end up reducing the space on the window sill.