Triple glazing for a warm winter

AS summer moves into autumn, many people will be making changes around their home to prepare for the cold, wintry weather.

And one way to keep the house warm, while also reducing energy bills, could be installing triple glazing.

Triple glazing is widely used in Scandinavia, indicating that it is a great way to keep out temperatures which rarely rise above zero.

But it’s still fairly new to many UK homeowners.

Triple glazing is exactly what it sounds like – windows with three panes of glass.

Fans of triple glazing say that the extra pane of glass provides an extra barrier to stop heat escaping, meaning it costs less to keep your home cosy, while also reducing outside noise coming in.

Taking a closer look at the energy efficiency benefits, triple glazing typically has a U value of around 0.8.

The U value is the industry standard rating for windows – the lower the U rating, the more efficient the windows are.

By way of comparison, walls with modern insulation have a rating of around 0.3, while modern double glazing has a U rating in the region of 1.6 (older styles of double glazing sit at around 3.0) and single glazing typically comes in at around a 5 U rating. So even with modern double glazing a home’s energy efficiency can be increased even further, while temperature difference inside is reduced, because the U value of the walls and windows are brought closer together.

It also reduces the amount of condensation on the inside of the windows. For people leaving in urban or noisy areas, triple glazing might be the answer.

The extra pane of glass acts as an additional buffer to keep out the sounds of busy roads.