Triple glazing, worthwhile?

Unseul

Unseul

Unseul

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So I'm slowly trying to build up things to improve the home with. And triple glazing is one of the things on the list. How much real world difference have people found it makes?

Live in a 2 bedroom bungalow with some fairly large windows.
 
Unseul said:
So I'm slowly trying to build up things to improve the home with. And triple glazing is one of the things on the list. How much real world difference have people found it makes?

Live in a 2 bedroom bungalow with some fairly large windows.
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It would make a difference undoubtedly but is it one you can live with financially? Are you looking for comfort, energy saving ?
 
Are you replacing the windows anyway? If not, not at all worthwhile.
 
Will triple glazed glass fit into an existing window frame.? - I had two windows changed in 2023 and they are hand over fist so much better than the 12 yr old existing windows -We had them fitted. . I did ask bloke if I could change the other window glass to this new argon filled double glaze stuff - No he said .
So these cold mornings I am wiping condensation from around edges of old double glazed window glass.
 
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I've opted for a triple glazed window as part of our ongoing extension due to the room being an office for noise reasons. The extra cost on the window was £70 + VAT so really small but it's a standard 1m wide job.

For the difference in price it seems worthwhile doing.
 
We had a quote for our front windows to be replaced with triple glazing as they faced north onto the road. However because we also wanted to preserve the look of the original leaded windows we couldn't have them. The difference in price for double glazed ones was around £900 less for five windows.
 
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Unseul said:
So I'm slowly trying to build up things to improve the home with. And triple glazing is one of the things on the list. How much real world difference have people found it makes?

Live in a 2 bedroom bungalow with some fairly large windows.
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Generally you will be able to achieve a decent u value with double glazing. On a decent window the u value will be around 1.3. Will the extra cost save money on energy bills that is debatable. The other thing consider is the extra weight will cause more wear on the hardware. You will also have to have trickle vents in the windows. Great triple glazing with 2 holes in the frames hmm.
 
DXP55 said:
So these cold mornings I am wiping condensation from around edges of old double glazed window glass.
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Even modern windows can have this problem in certain rooms like bedrooms. The human body puts out about ½ a pint of water overnight so, unless you have the bedroom door open, this extra moisture will go on the windows where its the coldest part of the room.
 
Chabsy said:
You will also have to have trickle vents in the windows. Great triple glazing with 2 holes in the frames hmm.
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You have to have this on modern double glazing as well due to "rules". Mostly because people wouldn't open their windows now and again to ventilate the area so everyone needs to suffer for other people's idiocy.

Never made sense to me. Get some nice high performing windows then cut big slots in the frame completely eradication the noise insulation properties of the window :rolleyes:

I've thought about getting sheets of high density acoustic foam to cut and push into the slots in the frame to fill them back up then stick the vents back on so they look "standard"
 
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Richie said:
You have to have this on modern double glazing as well due to "rules". Mostly because people wouldn't open their windows now and again to ventilate the area so everyone needs to suffer for other people's idiocy.

Never made sense to me. Get some nice high performing windows then cut big slots in the frame completely eradication the noise insulation properties of the window :rolleyes:

I've thought about getting sheets of high density acoustic foam to cut and push into the slots in the frame to fill them back up then stick the vents back on so they look "standard"
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If you look at it what happens when you open a door?
At the minute all our trickle vents are closed and we get condensation on our double glazing nothing new there. We also have a small shower room in which we have an extractor that went outside, nothing new there. However we built an extension on the side the extractor expelled air so we don't use it, shock horror but you need to ventilate it, would be the cry. Do we have mould? very little just a bit just above the shower. Why because it ends up around the rest of the house obviously and add to that a dog that keeps wanting to go outside, thus we get changes of air that would be provided by the trickle vent(which in our case does nothing to stop condensation on the bedroom windows)
 
Richie said:
You have to have this on modern double glazing as well due to "rules". Mostly because people wouldn't open their windows now and again to ventilate the area so everyone needs to suffer for other people's idiocy.

Never made sense to me. Get some nice high performing windows then cut big slots in the frame completely eradication the noise insulation properties of the window :rolleyes:

I've thought about getting sheets of high density acoustic foam to cut and push into the slots in the frame to fill them back up then stick the vents back on so they look "standard"
Click to expand...
I have just done a block of flats next to a busy road. We used acoustic glass and acoustic trickle vents they weren't cheap.

You would be surprised the amount of folks that fill up the trickle vent holes.
 
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tonys said:
If you look at it what happens when you open a door?
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I meant the bedroom door - if you leave it open the the moisture from the occupants can enter the rest of the house and less goes to the windows to form condensation.


Chabsy said:
I have just done a block of flats next to a busy road. We used acoustic glass and acoustic trickle vents they weren't cheap.

You would be surprised the amount of folks that fill up the trickle vent holes.
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There isn't necessarily an issue having no trickle vents (be that none installed or having them blocked up) as long as you open the windows even for 10 mins to allow the exchange of air. The issue is not the windows but more the idiots that dont open windows.
 
Richie said:
I meant the bedroom door - if you leave it open the the moisture from the occupants can enter the rest of the house and less goes to the windows to form condensation.




There isn't necessarily an issue having no trickle vents (be that none installed or having them blocked up) as long as you open the windows even for 10 mins to allow the exchange of air. The issue is not the windows but more the idiots that dont open windows.
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Front, back, bedroom does exactly what you say, disperses the moisture rich air.
 
We looked into it when building our hours 9 years ago and at the time pretty much everyone told us it wasn't worth it, i can't remember the U values of our windows, i think 1.2 maybe. Looking now it might have gone down to 0.9 so in theory should have been worth it but there was so much going on at the time i didn't think much about it!

I have to say our house is very warm so i can't imagine the slight extra performance would actually help much but that might be because everything else is so well insulated.
 
i doubt much heat is lost through double glazing, i built a bungalow about 9 years back with modern insulation and double glazing and the heat retention is insanely good. Its the modern insulation that made a colossal difference VS my old house.
 
An important factor is how thick the triple glazed units are as triple glazing works best with similar pane gaps to double, but when I looked at this a lot squeezed three panes into little more than double pane thickness which reduces noise reduction and thermal benefit.

Another factor for any new windows is how well they are fitted and sealed around the frame. I had all ours windows changed and had no internal trim so I could repair the plaster properly and despite the fitters knowing their work would be visible they did their usual silicone outside and minimal foam leaving large gaps around the frame and none had any foam over the top between lintel and window. This allows cold air in the cavity (and any air from gaps around window sill outside) to get nearer the inside of your home.

The difference before and after I used flexible acoustic foam, a special filler and then re-plastered the reveals was staggering and of course we have a neat finish. I used a thermal camera and noise meter to do some tests before and after some windows and it demonstrated how much is about fitting no matter what type of windows are fitted.
 
Windows are aging, some are blown, so I was thinking if we're replacing, might be worth just doing the whole lot. Now I'm wondering if doing it window by window may be better, but I suspect that given you end up paying for a full days work, even if it's just half a days job, more might be better regardless...

Mostly doing it to try and improve insulation.
 
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