Window insulation

[Joeboy]

We have two triangular windows and a side entry door which bleed heat over Winter. My Mazda Bongo has insulated window covers for overnightinging. Bought some threaded sucker cups, silver insulated roll and we have material. Will ask SWMBO to use her new 2nd hand sewing machine to run up these custom Winter blinds. May be a horrendous look but it's worth a go!

[GarethC]

The door looks like it has a reasonably modern double glazed unit in it, but it's still bad?

[Joeboy]

Pilkington K glass and as with all double glazing there is 'some' cold transmission. The 'blinds' will make a difference. Had a trial last year on the side door and it worked quite well.

Not sure I'd choose bad as a description but would go with 'can be improved'!

Plus we are enjoying all our wee projects together. SWMBO came thru yesterday with a massive sheet of brown paper and a big 'well chuffed with herself' smile. We will use it to cut a template.

[Adokforme]

Living in a 1970's bungalow with large windows I'm relieved to find I'm not the only one attempting to stop heat escaping through double glazing. Along with curtains and insulated blinds I've also taken to placing sheets of 50mm Celotex cut to appropriate size to fit within the recess in between the two. Used only in the darker months with long winter evenings.
Other than feeling warmer I've no figures to support any benefit derived but given that on very cold days heat loss through a standard double glazed window amounts to perhaps 0.6kW/m2 they are quite a heat sink!
Anybody upgraded with triple glazing prepared to share their experiences of it with us on here?

[Stinsy]

I've upgraded to triple glazing on most of my windows. I read a lot written against triple glazing when I was researching them, the received wisdom was that they reduce solar gain so much that "A rated" double glazing was better overall. But that didn't make sense to me, and I assumed that in the bright sunshine of a ski resort that might be true but shouldn't apply to overcast UK.

As with all such things definitive data is hard to come by, but:

• I have network-connected TRVs in all rooms. The triple-glazed rooms definitely cool down slower when the heating goes off in winter.

• When the sun comes out the inner pane of the triple-glazed is hot to the touch even when it is sub-zero outside.

• We frequently get condensation on the outside pane of the triple-glazed in the morning. Even though the inside is heated to room temperature the outside pane is so cold that morning air condenses on it.

[GarethC]

Pilkington K glass and as with all double glazing there is 'some' cold transmission. The 'blinds' will make a difference. Had a trial last year on the side door and it worked quite well.

Not sure I'd choose bad as a description but would go with 'can be improved'!

Plus we are enjoying all our wee projects together. SWMBO came thru yesterday with a massive sheet of brown paper and a big 'well chuffed with herself' smile. We will use it to cut a template.

I think you know about my product which essentially turns single glazed windows into (basic) double glazed windows. It relies on reasonably thick square frames for installation, and therefore my main customer segments are people with period properties and sash windows etc.

But I'm working on a version which could be attached to (almost) any window, even those without a protruding frame (such as yours). Idea is that my panel would attach directly to the glass. In principle, that's attractive, as all windows have a nice flat dependable glass surface to which to attach. The problem is finding a way to do it which also allows for easy removal of my panel, as I'm just not comfortable with a product you can't remove easily (if misting occurred, it would be a pain to sort). I'm looking at an approach similar to the common magnetic tape approach.

Anyway, point is there's actually a lot more old, poorly performing double glazing about than there is single glazing. Hence I'm interested in providing a way to improve that rather than replace it (as replacing it is expensive and has an appalling return on embedded carbon), by turning it into triple glazing. Sure it wouldn't come anywhere near 'proper' triple glazing in terms of performance, but it could be a quick and affordable way to bump up the thermal performance (up to 30% reduction in the -pane- U value I think just by adding an extra cavity of about 11mm depth).

I might come back here looking for willing volunteers to trial them before long!

[Joeboy]

Pilkington K glass and as with all double glazing there is 'some' cold transmission. The 'blinds' will make a difference. Had a trial last year on the side door and it worked quite well.

Not sure I'd choose bad as a description but would go with 'can be improved'!

Plus we are enjoying all our wee projects together. SWMBO came thru yesterday with a massive sheet of brown paper and a big 'well chuffed with herself' smile. We will use it to cut a template.

I think you know about my product which essentially turns single glazed windows into (basic) double glazed windows. It relies on reasonably thick square frames for installation, and therefore my main customer segments are people with period properties and sash windows etc.

But I'm working on a version which could be attached to (almost) any window, even those without a protruding frame (such as yours). Idea is that my panel would attach directly to the glass. In principle, that's attractive, as all windows have a nice flat dependable glass surface to which to attach. The problem is finding a way to do it which also allows for easy removal of my panel, as I'm just not comfortable with a product you can't remove easily (if misting occurred, it would be a pain to sort). I'm looking at an approach similar to the common magnetic tape approach.

Anyway, point is there's actually a lot more old, poorly performing double glazing about than there is single glazing. Hence I'm interested in providing a way to improve that rather than replace it (as replacing it is expensive and has an appalling return on embedded carbon), by turning it into triple glazing. Sure it wouldn't come anywhere near 'proper' triple glazing in terms of performance, but it could be a quick and affordable way to bump up the thermal performance (up to 30% reduction in the -pane- U value I think just by adding an extra cavity of about 11mm depth).

I might come back here looking for willing volunteers to trial them before long!

Rather than magnetic tape i'd be looking for an active seal. This can be achieved with an edge seal on the inner side of the added pane, strat placed sucker cups and the tolerance between the compression of the sucker cup to grip and the action of the seal itself. You'll always have some moisture as the air has humidity on install and if the seal is effective this moisture will condensate on the 2nd existing DG pane. Could go crazy and fit a shraeder valve to the added pane and pull a vac on it but likely collapse the pane or all least buckle it.

This isn't simple at all. I shall report back with outcome here at Casa De Bongo once gear arrives.

[Stan]

Gareth, I had not heard about your product. Where could I see that?

[GarethC]

Gareth, I had not heard about your product. Where could I see that?

PM'd you Stan I -think- (it's showing as in Outbox, so not sure if you've actually received it).

I'd love to get wider feedback on my product from this forum, but am a little hesitant to do so in a public thread as I'm still very early stage. Is it possible for me to set up a 'members only' thread or something? Maybe I'm just being silly/overcautious.

[Stan]

Gareth, I did receive the PM.