Double glazed windows are good for the environment

Double glazed windows are good for the environment

With issues like the energy crisis and cost of living problems plaguing British households right now, many homeowners are turning to double-glazing as a way of saving money. A double-glazed window treatment can significantly improve your energy efficiency, cut down on your energy bills, and give you a range of other benefits too – like better sound proofing.

However, double glazing isn’t just a powerful tool for your wallet – it’s good for the environment too. Switching to double-glazed windows can help you to play your part in making the UK more sustainable. Currently, greenhouse gas levels in the UK are measuring in at around 405.5 tonnes per year. While this is around 49.7% lower than the levels we had in the 1990s, there’s still a lot of work to be done to create an energy-efficient country.

Today, we’re going to look at some of the three ways double-glazed windows help the environment, and reduce your carbon footprint.

What Are Double-Glazed Windows?

Double glazing is a form of window treatment designed to improve the energy efficiency of one of the draughtiest parts of your home. Afterall, anywhere up to 10% of the heat in your home is lost through your windows, and traditional products weren’t designed with sustainability in mind.

Where a traditional window uses a single pane of glass surrounded by a frame to connect the inside and outside worlds, double glazing uses two layers. The two panels of glass are separated by a thin gap, filled with air to prevent thermal conduction.

Groups like the energy savings trust recommend switching to double or triple-glazed windows for anyone hoping to reduce their home heating needs, and improve their environmental friendliness. On average, the heat in your home dissipates twice as fast through a single-glazed window, compared to a double-glazed alternative.

The 3 Ways Double Glazing Helps the Environment

While most people know double-glazing can help with energy savings and bills, they don’t always know just how beneficial it is to the environment too. Here are the three biggest ways double glazing will improve your environmental footprint.

1. Reducing Heat Loss

Perhaps the biggest benefit of double glazing for the environment, is the ability to reduce the amount of heat lost from your home. Double glazing helps to eliminate draughts from your home, and keeps the warmth locked into your property during the winter months.

By reducing the amount of heat you lose each day from your windows, double glazing also reduces the amount you need to rely on gas and other fuels to heat your property. Some estimates suggest double glazed windows can effectively reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 680kgs per year.

2. Keeping you Cool in Summer

Double glazing isn’t just a great way to keep yourself and your family warm in summer. Adding a double glazing treatment from your window also ensures you can protect your property from absorbing too much heat during the summer months too.

The two layers in a double-glazed window assist in offsetting heat transfer from the sun, so you can keep your property as cool as possible when the temperature rises. This means you can spend less money on air conditioning products, and fans. The energy you save on using these products also means you’re not relying as heavily on natural resources to power your home.

3. Minimising your carbon footprint

When we burn fossil fuels for energy like gas and electricity, we release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The more CO2 we produce, the more we harm the environment, causing global warming and pollution. Installing double glazing helps to reduce your “carbon footprint” in a number of ways. The most obvious is by reducing the appliances you need to use to manage temperature.

However, double glazing can reduce the need for other uses of electricity too. For instance, the sound barrier you get from double glazing may mean you don’t have to spend money running radios and white noise machines to get to sleep at night. It can also ensure you spend less on chemicals to deal with mould and condensation, and aerosol products which harm the ozone layer.

How to Improve your Carbon Footprint with Double Glazing

The good news for people who want to become more energy efficient and sustainable, is double glazing offers a quick and simple way to make your property more eco-friendly. Often, installing double glazing will only take a couple of days. There are even options to invest in “secondary glazing”, to enhance your existing window products.

The most important thing to remember is you should always choose the right vendor to install your double-glazed windows. You’ll need to ensure the reputable provider is using the most energy-efficient materials in your windows to get the best results. For instance, reputable glaziers use “Low-E” glass, which has a metal oxide coating on one side of the pane to prevent extra heat from escaping.

A good vendor can even give you a range of different framing options for your windows, each with their own environmental benefits. For instance, aluminium and steel frames are recyclable and long-lasting, while wooden frames require very little production, making them good for carbon emissions.

Depending on your home and window requirements, your double glazing provider could even recommend upgrading to triple-glazing, which takes the energy efficiency of your windows to the next level, and helps you to save even more money on your gas and electric bills.

Save the Planet with Double Glazing

Double glazing isn’t just a great way to save yourself some extra money on your energy bills. It can also be a fantastic tool when you want to protect the environment and the planet. The key to success is making sure you choose the right company to implement your new double-glazed windows.

Look for an energy-saving recommended vendor, with plenty of options to offer when it comes to different types of window design and glazing options. Contact KJM today to learn more about our state-of-the-art energy rated windows and double glazing.

If you’re looking for help in planning your next home improvement, or simply want to talk about any of the points raised in this discussion, please don’t hesitate to contact me or a member of the team for more by calling 01264 359355 or emailing email [email protected]