How double glazing can keep your house cool
It’s easy to think of double glazing as being solely for keeping in heat and helping you save on your energy bills during the winter months. However, double glazing can actually help keep your home cooler in the summer too, helping you get a more comfortable night’s sleep during those sticky, humid nights.
How it works
Double glazing operates by limiting the amount of heat that can be transferred from one side of a window to the other. There are two parallel panes of glass with space in between, usually filled with an inert gas. When the glass on one side gets hot its molecules vibrate faster, but this heat is unable to transfer across the gap between panes because there are fewer particles to transmit it.
Modern systems can enhance this effect further with low emissivity glass. This has an invisible coating that slows down heat transfer and reflects back inside heat into the room. This type of glass is ideal for south facing windows and for conservatories where heat build up on sunny days can be a problem.
Choosing glazing
How good a double glazed window will be at preventing heat transfer is reflected in an energy rating – http://www.energykey.co.uk/epc.html. This is on a scale from A+ to -G. A+ windows offer the best energy efficiency and Gloucester double glazing suppliers like Firmfix will always seek to provide the most efficient installations.
Over time, windows can become less efficient as things like seals between the panes break down. This is often indicated by condensation forming inside the glass, though this usually takes a long time to happen and your glazing should give you many years of good service before it does.
Other ways of staying cool
Of course, double glazing isn’t the only way of keeping your home cool. In the UK there is no need for measures like shutters that are commonly used in hotter climates. However, you can make use of blinds and curtains to prevent the sun from overheating your rooms at the hottest times of day.
It may seem perverse, but keeping your bedroom windows shut and the curtains drawn at the hottest times of day can prevent heat buildup. This can help to make sure that it is cooler and more comfortable at night.
