camelot-forum.co.uk

Just read this on the BBC News website.

Anyone on here got triple glazing?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67161076

I’ve got triple glazed velux windows, more for the noise reduction than anything, good compared to the other 2 that are double glazed so a good real world difference.

I had a thread here, when I installed some myself.
https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... f=21&t=617

aah nice!

I've fitted triple glazing in almost every window in my house. More than just the insulation value it makes rooms more comfortable because cooling air flows down the pane of a poorly-insulated window and creates a cold draught even if the overall room temperature is sufficient.

When we renovated, we looked at tripple vs double glazed and the tripple glazing always appeared much darker due to the extra glass. We had a local joinery company make the frames and eventuall opted for DG on the S/E/W and G on the North. Part of the reasoning was the amout of light let through, but also we have 2 bays north facing each has 2 side windows 0.6m x 1.5M wit the main split into 3 panels totalling 2.7x 1.5m, so with nearly 6m2 in each bay with no sun on them we opted for tripple and did the same for the other north windows. All windows have low-e glass and warm edge spacers.

The most noticable difference is that the DG gets condensation round the inside edge, especially the bottom part but the TG gets condensation in the centre of the pane on the outside.

One problem we did not forsee, and neither did the joinery company is that we opted to have them painted dark grey. This was done in the factory prior to glazing and the fitting of the furniture. Once in place anywhere there was a "defect" in the wood, the paint bubbled on the south facing windows. It was determined that the dark colour caused the frame to get so hot that if there was a knot or similar the paint was getting pushed off by effectively steam. The joinery company came back several times during the first summer and cut out the "defective wood"then filled and repainted.

Unfortunately, a couple of years later, during the severe floods in the yorkshire dales, the river Worth flooded the factory and thy lost all the stock and most machinery. I suspect that after that the owner lost heart as when I spoke to him he said he couldn't face rebuiling the company from alost sratch.

We installed secondary glazing at the front and rear ground floor of our house while it was still single glazed - so 40 odd years ago. I retained the secondary glazing when the double glazing was fitted. It removes any real risk of condensation on the front window and patio door. It would still remain in place, even if I fitted triple glazed. Every little helps.

I do have triple glazing:

I'm currently self building a house (not passivehaus, but exceeding bc requirements), and whilst in discussion with the chap who did the energy efficiency calcs, he pointed out that even with triple glazing the windows are much worse than the walls in terms of U value, "so if you have any extra money to spend on insulation, you'll get more bang for your buck by putting it into the windows rather than extra insulation in the walls".

When i was getting quotes for the windows and doors, i found that the extra cost was not massive (iirc, £2600 for dg, £3100 for tg). Although I'm not sure the frames I've ended up with are the best for insulation, so if i were doing it again I'd probably have held out for better frames (because the frames are poorer than the glass in term of U value), which would undoubtedly have added significantly to the cost.

Having said that, I'm finding the house is very easy to heat with the ASHP (although we've not had any winter weather yet), so far using 100% home grown leccy, so i do wonder if the money i might have spent on better frames might actually be better spent on more battery/pv/ripple/etc anyway.

Marcus wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 5:18 pm I do have triple glazing:

I'm currently self building a house (not passivehaus, but exceeding bc requirements), and whilst in discussion with the chap who did the energy efficiency calcs, he pointed out that even with triple glazing the windows are much worse than the walls in terms of U value, "so if you have any extra money to spend on insulation, you'll get more bang for your buck by putting it into the windows rather than extra insulation in the walls".

When i was getting quotes for the windows and doors, i found that the extra cost was not massive (iirc, £2600 for dg, £3100 for tg). Although I'm not sure the frames I've ended up with are the best for insulation, so if i were doing it again I'd probably have held out for better frames (because the frames are poorer than the glass in term of U value), which would undoubtedly have added significantly to the cost.

Having said that, I'm finding the house is very easy to heat with the ASHP (although we've not had any winter weather yet), so far using 100% home grown leccy, so i do wonder if the money i might have spent on better frames might actually be better spent on more battery/pv/ripple/etc anyway.

You've stumbled onto an interesting point!

Once you've done that basic hygiene factors of decent insulation/air tightness, further improvements are very expensive for very little gain. Often you'd be better to add a few more solar panels. Obviously you need the space to put the panels, but a typical 3/4-bed house with a roof designed with solar in mind can fit 6kwp on the South(ish) roof and another 6kWp on the North(ish) side. That'll be more cost effective than expensive marginal improvements to insulation!

Yes, if you have a draughty cold old house, then insulate, insulate, insulate, cos insulation and draughtproofing are cheap.

And to some degree if you want to save on bills fit pv, pv and more pv, cos that's cheap now.

But once you have a reasonable amount of something then it becomes less cost effective to add more:- i was looking at the cheap pv on another thread and thinking i could add another 10 or 12 panels. But actually, the weak links in my system are my small battery, then my small inverter. Adding another 4 or 5 kw would mean i have a bigger surplus i can't use or store when it's sunny, and on a very dull day like today I'd get 2x b*gger-all instead of the b*gger-all i got from my existing pv.