Windows

[Gazzab]

Interestingly when my house was assessed for some building work they had to assess the thermal effectiveness of my 300 year old house. They wouldnt take the new windows into account as they were not deemed any better than the old ones by the guy doing the survey. Despite the old ones being about as effective as chicken wire. The condensation levels are lower with the new windows but not eradicated.

[p1esk]

TA14 said:

Gazzab said:

p1esk said:

I haven't read all the comments here (sorry), but what was that about slim window units? Are we talking about a small air gap, say 6 or 8 mm or so, because if we are, doesn't that markedly reduce the effectiveness of double glazing?

My impression has been that we should aim to have an air gap of not less than about 20 mm if we want the DG to be reasonably effective.

I'm not condoning the technology or performance but its what I've got albeit from another supplier/manufacturer.
http://www.slimliteglass.co.uk/

Making the gap smaller does reduce the effectiveness: http://www.pilkington.com/~/media/Pilkington/Site%... but a 6mm air gap dg unit will still perform much better than a single pane of glass for noise and heat insulation and the prevention of condensation. Probably not worth the effort for most post WW1 houses.

Right, I accept all of that, but I would add this:

I suppose any sort of double glazing will be better than single glazing, but so far as noise insulation is concerned, I thought that a much larger air gap was needed.

While I was working in the chemical industry on Teesside (up to 1972!) we had a lecture room that was located quite close to a noisy bit of chemical plant. On the wall facing the plant, the double glazed windows were quite shallow and placed about five or six feet above floor level. They had an air gap of (from memory) roughly nine inches, and I was told that for sound insulation purposes you needed to have that sort of gap. I don't know how correct that might be in technical terms, I'm merely reporting what I can recall.

In domestic situations, I've found that the installation of DG does substanatially reduce condensation problems, but it doesn't eliminate it. Has anybody found it to cure the problem completely?

Merry Christmas to one and all,
Dave.

[Gazzab]

It's deathly quiet where I live. No planes, hardly any cars...double glazing wasn't needed to reduce noise, in fact it was better before as you could hear birds, horses etc
The thinner double glazing was an aesthetic choice so as to keep the window design as in keeping and 'fine' as poss. Thick double glazing requires a thicker frame design and so the horizontal bar would have had to be too thick for my liking.