When it comes to replacing windows, the type of glass used can make a huge difference to the performance. Not all glass is made equal, and we explain why.
The glass in your windows and doors has many functions. Enabling the flow of natural light, ensuring heat retention, making your home safe and secure, reducing outside noise and more. Glass can even help protect your furniture from fading.
Although most clear glass will look the same to the naked eye, the differences are vast.
The Energy Standard
With energy prices rising, energy efficiency is more important now than ever. The only way to take control of the increasing energy costs is to make homes more efficient. Various studies show that old, inefficient windows can be responsible for a huge amount of heat loss.
Our double glazing is ‘A’ energy rated as standard which helps with the increasing energy costs. When compared with older style double glazing, our ‘A’ rated units will stop 56% more internal heat escaping.
Our glass choices are not limited to only our standard unit. If you have certain U-Value or G-value requirements, or you have a room that feels particularly cold be sure to let us know. We have an array of double and triple glazing options to suit every need. This ensures that we can provide you with a solution for all requirements.
Enhanced Security
Safety glass comes in different forms and many different thicknesses. Toughened, and laminated glass are both much harder to break than standard annealed glass. Experts suggest that toughened glazing is 6 times harder to break in fact.
Toughened, and laminated glass does not just protect your home, it protects you too. When toughened glass does break it will break into small, blunt cubed pieces of glass. Laminated glass is manufactured to include a sheet of PVB. This means that when the glass is broken, the PVB layers make the glass stick to them so that it does not fall out of the window frame.
Safety glass gives you peace of mind knowing that your home, and your family are safe and secure. Regulations specify that safety glass must be used within certain locations of the home, but it can be installed in any window upon your request.
Cooler When It’s Hot, Warmer When It’s Not
Solar control glazing does what it says on the tin, and more. A special coating is applied to glass during the manufacturing process which enhances its thermal properties. This type of glass can be used to create a more comfortable living space by not only reducing overheating, but also noticeably reducing excessive heat loss. This helps to keep your home cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, therefore making your home more efficient.
This kind of glazing also provides a higher rate of light transmittance when compared with standard glazing. This means that it keeps your home lighter inside, reducing the need for interior lighting in daylight hours, therefore making your home even more efficient.
Peace & Quiet
Modern double glazing is much better that single glazing, or even older double glazing when it comes to noise reduction. For most homes, our standard double glazing will keep your home as quiet as you would like it to be. In some cases where houses are situated in busy areas, on main roads or with rooms facing a street, you may suffer from noise more than others.
Fortunately, different glazing options can greatly aid with noise pollution and keep your home lovely and quiet even in noisy areas. A common consensus from customers is that triple glazing will be the best option for noise reduction, this however is not the case. Acoustic glazing has been developed to reduce the effect of outside noise. This is achieved by the glass absorbing noise energy within the glass and reflecting the noise back towards the source.
UV Protection
Most homes have a large surface area of glass, and glass obviously lets in a lot of light. Something that a lot of people don’t think about is the suns effect on their furniture, and even the people in the home. Standard glazing has a high UV transmittance and prolonged exposure to the suns UV rays will contribute to your furniture, work surfaces and curtains / blinds fading over time.
Alternative glazing options are available that can block up to 99% of the suns UV rays. This will therefore protect your furniture, and the people within the home from the sun’s harmful UV rays. Think of it as a sun cream for your home.
The Ultimate Combination
As we have now shown, not all glass is made equal. Similarly, not one piece of glass does it all, and you wouldn’t want it to. Enhanced glass comes at a cost and some features are not always relevant. Nobody wants to pay for something that they don’t need, so we tailor build a solution according to the requirements.
Each room in your home will have different requirements to the other. This depends on factors such as whether the house is near a road, which way it faces etc. The requirements for a north facing lounge window that faces a busy road would be different to a large south facing dining room window that oversees your garden. In the first example you would want the window to provide warmth, security, and noise reduction. In the second you would desire temperature control and UV reduction.
How We Can Help
The benefits of double and triple glazing are that not all panes of glass need to be the same. We can therefore create units that incorporate different glass types. This allows us to build a unit that is specifically designed to deal with its requirements. You will then have a window, or door that does exactly what is needed, to the best standard, for the most affordable cost.
Fortunately, you don’t need to know the requirements, or research which glass combinations are best suited for your home. Our friendly staff have a wealth of knowledge within the industry, and we are here to help you understand which products can be most beneficial depending on what you want to achieve, or what would benefit your home. We offer industry leading advice, products, quality of installation and aftercare ensuring that there is no company more well versed to help you find the products best suited to you and your requirements.