Top 3 considerations when choosing glass for your home
Glazing expert Samantha Anderson from Viridian Home Comfort lists the Top 3 things homeowners need to think about when selecting glass and windows for their home.
1. Natural Light
Natural light is an essential element in creating a comfortable, healthy, light-filled home. Science has proven that natural light is linked to happiness and well-being, and glass is the channel that can bring those feelings of happiness and healthiness into your family life.
One of the wonders of natural light, is that it can make your house feel like a home. There’s nothing better than enjoying those leisurely mornings at home reading the papers while basking in the sunlight of your favourite chill out spot.
The better performing glass you use; the more natural light you can enjoy. For example, large areas of ordinary glass lose heat and don’t comply with energy regulations, leaving homeowners to face the challenge of achieving adequate natural light levels and an energy efficient home.
As a result, many homeowners choose to use smaller windows to achieve the required star rating, ultimately reducing the level of natural light coming into the home.
To overcome this, we advise consumers to choose a high performance glass as this allows them achieve a larger glass area and increased natural light levels, while still maintaining a comfortable home that’s cool in summer and warm in winter.
For example, Viridian’s high performance double glazed product LightBridge™ is a window that behaves like a “window” when it comes to light but behaves more like a “wall” when it comes to insulation. Using a glass that provides better insulation over ordinary glass offers homeowners the opportunity to increase the glazed area of their home but still achieve a six-star rating and enhanced natural light levels. A win all round.
2. Insulation
When we talk about feeling physically and emotionally comfortable it’s hard to get past temperature – if you feel too hot or too cold then you’re not comfortable. Glass has a huge impact on the livability and comfort of your home. For example, many consumers may not realise that ordinary glass windows are an energy leak. A typical, adequately-insulated building that uses ordinary glass can lose up to 40 per cent of heat through the windows in winter. The same windows allow up to 87 per cent of solar heat gain during summer.
Homeowners who want greater control over the comfort and temperature of their home have a number of options. They can choose an entry-level energy efficiency glass product such as Viridian’s SmartGlass™ which improves insulation over ordinary glass by around a third. Or they can go a step further and choose a higher performing glass such as Viridian’s LightBridge which can more than double this improvement in insulation performance.
It goes without saying that your home is a place you should enjoy spending time in and temperature plays a huge role in that. You can’t relax in a chilly sitting room or create a culinary masterpiece in an overheated kitchen. Your window’s insulation performance will help control your home’s temperature and ultimately how your home feels.
3. Acoustics
We know that there is an increasing number of Australians now living in high density urban areas, so people are looking for long term ways to prevent outside noise disrupting home life.
The Viridian team developed ComfortHushTM to specifically address this issue. ComfortHush can reduce noise levels entering a home by up to 34 per cent compared to ordinary 3mm glass.
It offers up to a 6 decibel reduction in sound transmission compared to ordinary glass, which is the equivalent of moving a house roughly double the distance from the noise source.
Viridian’s LightBridge can also be upgraded to offer enhanced noise control giving homeowners the opportunity to create a comfortable, peaceful living space that provides sanctuary from the outside world.
Acoustic performance glass is especially helpful for families. As a parent, I think one of the key advantages is that it allows you to sit back and enjoy your cup of tea and read your book while keeping an eye on the kids playing outside-without being disturbed by the noise of their backyard cricket commentary.
Also, imagine no longer having to listen to your over enthusiastic neighbour mowing his lawn at 7am every Saturday. Acoustic performance glass makes it easy to relax at home, you can simply close the window and disconnect from the outside world and recharge in peace and quiet.
For more on Viridian’s range of glass products for your home visit at http://www.viridian.com.au
