How energy efficient glass can help reduce home energy bills

This blog post comes courtesy of Lachlan Austin, GM Marketing for Viridian Glass Ordinary windows are an energy leak point. In fact, a typical, adequately-insulated building that uses ordinary glass can lose up to 49% of heat through the windows in winter. Those same windows allow up to 87% of unwanted solar heat gain during summer. Because ordinary window performance is so poor in energy terms, even modest improvements in the glass performance can lead to significant changes in heating and cooling costs. Viridian’s entry-level energy efficiency product: SmartGlass^TM improves insulation over ordinary glass by around a third, offers a wide range of solar control options and can typically deliver a 10% to 25% reduction in heating and cooling costs, depending on the climate and design. Higher performing glazing options could more than double this improvement. Put simply, no modern home should be built with anything less than a Low E glass and preferably with double glazing. If you have taken the step to choose double glazing, it makes sense to get the best available – Low E coated, Argon gas fill, quality construction and a meaningful warranty. Double glazing also allows you to mix and match multiple glass types to achieve different performance outcomes (enhanced noise control, security, etc.) When building a new home, much of the cost of the windows is in the frames. So upgrading to a Low E glass like SmartGlass™ which fits in a standard frame should only cost 15-30% more, but provides you with lifelong energy savings through summer and winter. Double glazing is becoming far more commonly available and so its pricing has improved significantly, so it is well worth investigating using this to get the best energy savings and comfort levels in your home.   But make sure that you compare like with like: there is a big difference in performance between a low-end 3:6:3 (3mm glass: 6mm Air: 3mm glass) double glazing unit, and a high performance 4mm Low-E +12mm Argon + 4mm clear unit.

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