What is triple glazing?
Put simply, triple glazing is 3 panes of glass instead of 1 or 2. The claim is that by having an extra pane, you will increase efficiency and reduce noise. We already know that double glazing makes a significant improvement over single glazing, but even so, upgrading from single to double glazing takes a long time to pay back in terms of energy efficiency. So would making the jump to triple glazing make that much of a difference?
Modern double glazing
As you may be aware, the energy efficiency of windows is measured with a ‘U-value’ and the lower this value is, the better.
Single glazing has a U-value of 5, older double glazing about 3 and new modern double glazing a U-value of 1.6, which is mainly due to improved methods of double glazing compared to older models. These improvements have been made through optimisation of the window cavity, the use of low emissivity coatings, using inert gas to fill the gap, and using aluminium spacers or ‘cold bridges’.
All this has brought down the U-value of modern windows considerably, so does that make triple glazing worth it, if double glazing is now so much better? Well, walls have a u value of around 0.3, so it is clear that windows have a long way to go before they are no longer a weak point in the efficiency of the building.
Does installing triple glazing pay?
In Scandinavia, triple glazing is now pretty much standard, with modern triple glazing taking the U-value of the windows down to around 0.8. This is a considerable improvement on even modern double glazing. Lots of new homes are now being built with triple glazing and it is generally acknowledged as being better, but compared to top double glazing, the payback period is very similar. As we have mentioned elsewhere, on a purely efficiency basis, double-glazing does not pay for itself and triple glazing is no exception. Changing from single glazing to triple glazing, in terms of energy efficiency payback, is very similar to double glazing payback.
>>> Can you reseal double-glazing <<<
Why? Well the cost of triple glazing is a fair bit higher than double, whilst the improved U-value is not very large. If you are getting your windows done anyway, or you are building a new home, triple glazing is not a bad idea, but if you already have double glazing, triple glazing might not be right for you.
Are there other things you can do to reduce your U-value?
Yes. If you are going to have triple glazing, you will need well insulated frames, as this is one of the major heat loss areas in a window. Adding thick curtains, and keeping them closed at night will help reduce your bills also.
Other reasons for getting triple glazing
So triple glazing doesn’t really pay for itself, but are there other reasons for getting it above double glazing? Here I will go through a couple of other reasons why you should consider triple glazing.
Triple glazing can help reduce condensation on your windows.
Triple glazing offers a significant reduction in noise pollution – so it is ideal for those living in noisy areas.
Double glazing can create cold patches in the house, due to the higher u value of windows compared to walls and doors. This problem is exacerbated by modern insulation – as better and thicker wall insulation means windows become much colder compared to the rest of the house. Triple glazing is an excellent solution to this problem, as it reduces the difference in U-value between the windows and the rest of the building.
Alternatives to triple glazing
The main alternative to triple glazing is to add secondary glazing like Ecoease to your existing windows. This is a removable pane which acts the same as double glazing but at a fraction of the price. While it’s true that you wouldn’t reach quite the same U-values with the kind of option, it certainly has it’s positives; it’s cheaper, better at soundproofing, and helps cut your bills significantly.
So triple or double?
The debate over triple or double-glazing is still raging, so I won’t tell you one way or another what is best for your property. But there are a few main points:
- If you’ve already got good double glazing, don’t bother with triple.
- Triple glazing doesn’t pay for itself, but neither does double.
- Triple glazing is usually more expensive.
- If you want to get rid of cold spots in an otherwise well heated house, or you have lots of noise outside, triple glazing is an option.
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Triple glazing reduces the light transmission. To obtain the same light level in the room you need a larger rooflight/window, increasing the total heat loss. Therefore triple glazing is a waste of money. The best answer is high performance double glazing.
We had triple glazing when we lived in Switzerland and in Germany. There is a huge benefit in sound insulation.
Hi Ray,
Thanks for your comment, not entirely sure i agree – I think that Triple glazing definitely has a place in homes – natural light coming into buildings has proven health benefits so actually allowing for bigger windows is not the end of the world – appreciate that the energy savings of increased glazing are lower, but in solid wall properties for instance, where solid wall efficiency is terrible anyway, replacing the large sash windows with triple glazing is actually rather sensible.
Do you not think that if the light transmission is reduced and then the window size increased to compensate, you are back where you started with regard to the ‘health effects’? In fact glass blocks various wavelengths and partially absorbs others, so no amount of window is going to allow you to make Vitamin D from sunlight and you will have to go into the garden. Which is healthier anyway.
That leaves the psychological effects of brighter rooms compared with enclosed space, and with that there can be little argument; enclosure increases depression.
Meanwhile, the original point about reducing light intensity is mostly erroneous; it will be a few percent at most, since the internal sheet in triple glazing will remain clean. A few percent is less than the effect of a little dust on the window – and there is always dust – or a bit of curtain blocking one corner. In other words, negligible. Would it not have been better to point this out?
The point about solid wall efficiency is a good one, but a bit misleading – more effective is to add internal or external insulation, and if you self-fit internal insulation (not difficult) it will pay for itself in a few years. Cheaper than fitting larger windows!
Perhaps you might also have pointed out that a good U Value for the window unit is useless if the thing is poorly fitted and leaks draughts around the edges. In fact, that is very common, and poor-quality workmanship undermines a good deal of the expected gains from increases in building standards. For example, sometimes cavity-wall insulation actually in creases heat loss because a poor installation supplies ‘cold bridges’. In the real world, actual results are more important than paper gains, and there is little enforcement of building standards.
Triple glazing increases the wright of the opener by at least 50%. For larger windows, the hinges can become twisted due to the excess weight, even with heavy duty hinges, the screws can come away from the frame and result in the sash falling, this could have horrific consequences where the windows are at a high level. In the case of sliding doors, this puts added pressure on the bearings in the track which can eventually seize up. From a carriage point of view, triple glazing takes up twice the space of double glazing on delivery vehicles, so either twice the number of vehicles or journeys are required. High performance double glazing is a far better and safer option although I’m sure some manufacturers will disagree as triple glazing allows them to sell 50% more glass.
I hate to be obvious, but an increase from two to three sheets cannot make a frame 50% heavier; more like a third heavier. Obviously, the internal components will be heavier and perhaps larger, as will be the hinges, but not double the weight.
As for hinges failing, are you suggesting that hinges are impossible to design – in which case how on Earth do cathedral and temple doors stay up for 1000 years – or are you just talking about shoddy goods, which would probably fail anyway?
Your argument could be – and probably was – put forward by installers of single glazing when faced with other companies installing double glazing.
Overall, the real argument is not how many lorry journeys take place, but what the energy balance is for the lifetime of the product, including manufacture and distribution. Triple glazing reduces heating requirements, and that reduces green-house gas emission, which is important even if the things otherwise were to be more expensive and less wieldy. But my friends in Prague have triple glazing that is easily 40 years old, and the hinges are just fine, so I think there is a degree here of self-interest.
Triple glazed widows have panes of different thickness, thicker panes are much heavier. Double and triple glazing go into the same frames, if the frames are too weak then hinges will distort.
I have just had some quotes for double/triple glazing the suggestion is that triple glazing is fitted into lager frames and better hinges in Scandinavian countries than is use in England they try to fit triple glazing into double glazing frames and use double glazing hinges so are more prone to failure.
Nick, when measuring rate of change – ANY change – always divide the new number by the old number. In this case, divide 3 by 2 and you will get a rate of change of 1.5, in other words a 50% increase. True that the jamb & sash does not increase that much, but the weight of a windoow is primarily the glass. A 50% weight increase is pretty close to what you will be seeing.
I hate to be cleverer than you, but going from 2 sheets to 3 sheets is indeed 50% extra. 2 is 33% less than 3.
Haha – fair point – thanks for that Tom!
It’s very interesting article and debate. Triple glazing is a very good solution for those living in noisy areas, especially for those people that live in the central parts of the city. It seems new houses are being built right in the busiest parts as a result of a shortage of space, so here it looks like triple glazing is an excellent solution to this problem. Secondly, triple glazing can also be used in rooms where double glazing simply isn’t effective. Financially over the long term the triple glazing will give better results than double glazing – albeit at a higher install cost.
You have to be careful of this. If DG is not effective, why not? Are you thinking of rooms with three or four external walls? If so, TG wll help only marginally, because you have not addressed the major sources of heat loss.
As for repayment – if you pay money for it, then you have to account for the interest you would have earned had you not bought it. If TG adds £1000 to your installation, then that is £1000 you would have had on deposit (or in shares). It may be that the reductions in heating costs are less than the loss of interest. TG won’t last for ever; say 10 years before the seals fail. So the costs have to be spread over 10 years (or whatever the life is) and be balanced by the savings over that period. In fact, frequently there are no savings, because people do not reduce their thermostat settings, or because the control systems are just not sensitive enough to behave differently. On the other hand, a guaranteed saving occurs if you reduce the thermostat setting by 2 degrees, and you are likely to improve your health as well. On that basis, I would reduce the temp., save the money and wait for TG to fall in price…
No one has mentioned the principle underlying the PassivHaus standard of home insulation and draft-proofing, relevant to any discussion of triple glazing.
PassivHaus dictates that the internal surfaces of walls and windows must be no more than 5C lower than the designed air temperature. So if the design seeks an air temperature of 21C, the windows must get no colder than 16C to touch.
The big deal here, is that this small designed temperature difference reduces the occurrence and perception of cold draughts… if you do not suffer a cold draught whilst you are sitting indoors, you can remain feeling comfortable at a lower room temperature… if you feel a nasty cold draught it scarcely matters how warm you heat a room, that draught will leave you feeling uncomfortable.
Triple glazing gives a good prospect of your windows meeting the passivhaus standard – reducing cold draughts of air ‘falling’ down the face of cold windows … you can likely turn the thermostat down 1 or 2C, thus seriously reducing your heating bill, contributing to ROI, and feel more comfortable too. This all assumes that the rest of your house is suitably insulated and draught-proofed; commonly heat recovery ventilation systems are used in to ensure suitable ventilation without losing heat or creating draughts.
Friends house is cool in summer and not over-heated in winter, but feels very comfortable with no draughts – the triple glazing feels like room temperature to the touch, which is quite disconcerting given how cold windows normally feel.
Of course, you could add net curtains to control convection currents, which is what I do.
I live in Sweden in a house built in 1984. We still have the original windows and they are triple glazed. They are wooden framed, look like regular windows and we have no problems with hinges or light loss. To us they are just standard windows and we would not consider anything less then triple glazing.
As our windows are 30 years old they only have an u-value of about 1,8 but standard windows installed in new houses are now around 1,2 and sometimes as low as 0,8 depending on the gas used between the glass.
I don’t understand why it is such a big deal in the UK to look at other countries building techniques and pick out things that are proven over decades.
The UK has a very low-skilled work force (which is why we typically now employ Indian computer programmers and German Engineers and why we really, really, have a difficult political problem over immigration!) Most houses are still built with a labour force that is basically grunt labour using 100-year-old techniques. It is not just housing that is afflicted with this – look what happened to our ship-building and car industries. That is the reason.
Pretty naive comment. You’ll find that our govt policies and focus on banking and london has failed to support engineering and manufacturing and so everything is designed to a minimum to even try to stay in business. Also, we are less arrogant and nationalist compared to most countries and happily buy from all over the world. Were we to stop doing this for say 5 years, the extra cash injection into Uk industries would give the confidence to tool-up for more investment and higher quality levels. Also, you wont find many German engineers in the UK…it;s just too inefficient and unpredictable for them, whilst the lack of mixer taps puts most swedes off! ;o) You’ll also find our best engineers move abroad where they are better rewarded for their skills.
What I have also noticed is that prices of triple glazing are often more than double the prices of double glazing. this must be to do with the fact that they don’t sell as much. Surely the price of triple glazing should only increase by less than a third compared to double glazing. Hardly anyone in the UK builds a house to last nowadays. Only cheap materials are used and often if better insulating materials could be used, that other countries in Europe have been using for decades, that will probably not comply “UK standards” and will not be accepted…
Does TG reduce condensation problems? I would expect that the inner glass layer stays nearer to room temperature in a good TG window, which could reduce condensation. I’ve 2 north-facing bedrooms, one double glazed and one single. In winter, when someone takes a shower, the single glazed streams with condensation. The double glazed one is better but some condensation still occurs. A high capacity dehumidifier helps a lot but also uses power.
Many UK houses have wooden framed windows, so converting to UPVc framed double or triple glazed has an extra benefit – less maintenance/painting required.
The cost of design and tooling-up a factory for manufacturing windows is similar for single, double and triple glazed. TG adds a little extra cost in raw materials and a fractional increase in production time. The high extra cost of TG has more to do with ‘what the market will bear’ than actual real manufacturing costs.
Hi Mark, you are quite right, the inner pane will be similar to the room temperature so it will reduce condensation further. To be honest though, there is little point replacing working double glazing (i.e. seal is intact) with triple glazing since the energy savings just won’t be there. You might want to consider it with the single paned window.
You are absolutely right with your comment about the additional extra costs. As building regulations go further to make windows on new builds even more efficient (they are traditionally the weak point in the envelope of the home), you would expect to see the prices come down as more manufacturers enter the market and there are increased economies of scale and competition – I think (and hope!) this is just a matter of time.
Great debate. In the ‘Modern Double Glazing’ section, mention is made of “aluminium spacers or ‘cold bridges'”. I think this is misleading, as they are not synonymous. Modern dgu’s do indeed have spacer bars separating the two sheets of glass. In a low u-value window, these are spec’d as ‘warm-edge spacer bars’, made of a low conduction plastic. The old-school aluminium spacers are not really known as ‘cold bridges’, but will behave as one; the ‘cold bridge’ being the aluminium itself conducting heat out through the glass edge. Often condensation will form around the perimeter of the glass partly due to this effect. Decent windows have a thermal break in the frame itself, which coupled with the warm edge spacer, should eliminate this problem…p.s. There is a good column on p14 of Historic Scotlands’ paper, elegantly titled: Fabric Improvements for Energy Efficiency in Traditional Buildings. The relative merits of window improvements are discussed, with values given.
Had triple glazing installed on a property located in North west London. Honestly, first time ive had piece and quiet and a good night sleep in a while. The company that did the install has helped fit 2 new doors and ive benefited from the green deal £1600 incentive. Not sure if my home is more energy better, but I wait will great patience to see how winter will be. Hopefully positive outcomes.
Triple glazing is definitely worth getting, we installed it and it made a big difference espicailly for sound. but thanks for the advice, any free advice is nice !!
I was wondering if you can get triple glazed timber sash windows? I have an Victorian house that is very cold and want to swap them out.
Hi Leo – you can get triple glazed sash windows, but we would advise against this due to the cost. If you can afford it, double glazed sash windows are still pretty good. Best thing to do is to get 3 independent quotes and then go with the supplier that ticks all your boxes.
Just wondering how much good thick curtains make to the insulation impact. I pass a number of houses on mid-winter night with no curtains closed.
Windows inevitably collection condensation – any products out there to collect this rather than my morning ‘bowl and sponge’ ritua
Just wondering how much good thick curtains make to the insulation impact. I pass any number of houses on mid-winter nights with no curtains closed. Windows also inevitably collect condensation – any products out there to collect this rather than my morning ‘bowl and sponge’ ritual (and I’m not talking about dehumidifers)?
In response to Paul, I went for a combination of thick curtains and efficient double glazing, and I am very happy – it has made a huge difference. If I had to choose again I may opt for triple glazing though as it seems more mainstream now – I think Anglian are offering ‘free’ triple glazing upgrades at the minute.
I am looking to replace 20 year old double glazing. One of the windows is 4.2m wide in my lounge, others are also min of 2m wide (bathroom). I have a window with a broken pane, one window now does not shut nicely and another can be pushed open even when locked down. Because of the size of the windows, I am considering triple glazing. Can anyone give me any info to consider.
Some really useful bits of info here.
Interested in the triple glazing because of the added sound proofing and thermal insulation. Think i’ve made up my mind as there seem to be a couple of good comments on here. Cheers for the info.
Best test between triple glazed and double glazed windows was at my friends house last winter in Lithuania. At -28 🙂 , one side of the house had double glazing and other side had triple glazing. Triple glazed windows stayed dry on the inside, but double glazed windows had to be wiped a few times per day… By the way quality of triple glazed windows made in UK and cold climate countries not the same…
I’m surprised that everyone seems to have missed the biggest point of all – namely thermal comfort…
Once I switched to double glazing, rooms felt so much more pleasant to walk into, and to be in – aside from the obvious calm of relative quietness. Also, there’s a considerable increase in comfort from avoiding the battle to heat rooms aggressively, including avoiding the relative delay to get rooms up to temperature.
Thanks for the comment Balijeet, agreed this is an often overlooked point. I guess the point is that despite this, the cost of paying for the double / triple glazing means that a pay back in pure energy saving terms is often in the decades! But agreed – thermal comfort is really important especially if there is a particular room in the home you use often.
I am from Finland but living in UK. In Finland triple and even quadruple windows are commonplace. In Scandinavia we have cold winters with temperatures as low as -20 to -30 degrees Celsius below zero. We would freeze to death with single glazed windows! Astronomic energy bills would be the only result if you would attempt to try to heat a house with single windows during the winter time – or as we put it “it is no point to heat for the birds!”. You would really understand what a difference windows can make, not only in energy savings but also comfort if you take a trip to Finland, Sweden or Norway during the coldest winter months.
I intend to replace all English “double glazed” windows my house in London with proper Scandinavian windows for the sake of the comfort – the huge reduction in energy bills is a great plus, and the carbon footprint is indeed massively reduced should it make any difference.
For those who suggest triple glazing would not pay off just take a look at the calculation below:
For example the best windows on the market in Finland offer U-values of 0.58 (A++ energy rating), E value 30.
Here is what one manufacturer (Scaala windows) say (freely translated) on their website;
“When we replace the MS-windows from 1950’s and install new
Alfa Scaala fog-free windows, you can save 10,000 € in 12 years.*
*) Based on the window energy rating E-values. The house of 20m2 square meters of window surface area.
Energy price of 0.12 € / KWh.
Rising energy prices + 4% per year.”
Now, in UK triple and quadruple windows appear hugely overpriced, so the calculation might not be accurate for UK. However their calculation shows an energy cost reduction from 11.000 € old windows vs. 1100 € for their best windows over a period of 12 years – giving an idea of the how remarkable the energy saving actually is. OK, you might not achieve that but say you reach 70% of that and it is still a pretty good saving in energy costs. But more importantly why freeze inside for 12 years when you could improve the comfort for you and your family?
I got a ridiculous offer from one of the leading UK triple glazing companies (let us call them “E” for short) of £27.000 for replacing all the windows and the front door… with a 40% discount” applied ???!!!). Even if the frames appeared stiff, I was not convinced of the construction (insulation) in the actual frames just looking at the cross-section of the construction. The “E” windows could no way be compared to the standard we Scandinavians are used to. Thus I now intend to import proper double sash quadruple windows from Finland.
BUT – and here is the “BIG” BUT. If you have a house that is poorly insulated and have typical English construction features such as
– outer walls brick with no cavity
– straight chimneys without any flap. ( In Scandinavia we close the chimneys while the fireplaces aren’t in use to prevent heat from escaping along the chimneys which otherwise also causes an awful draft).
– holes as big as a brick in every room for “ventilation” only covered by a grating.
Your house might still NOT become much warmer if you have one or more of these brick sized ventilation holes in your house, you need to fix these issues as well!
While ventilation is important to prevent condensation and mold there is absolutely no need to have holes as large as a brick in every single room which appears to be a common practice here in UK. Further it is important to understand that proper windows will prevent condensation on the inside of the windows caused by cold bridging.
Just to make you guys to understand the difference what windows and insulation makes think about the fact that nobody in Scandinavia would use a hot water bottle in their beds – No, not even when it is -32 degrees Celsius outside – because there is NO NEED for it! Our houses are properly built, insulated and stay warm even during the coldest winters.
hi jacob, i found your comments very interesting so a big thank you for your input, my son is about to insulate my very old 3 bedroomed semi detached house in Liverpool with 100mm insulation and he is also going to put new double glazed windows in for me but I have been trying to research the pro,s and cons of triple glazing, my sons partner is from Sweden so i think I might ask him to have a chat with his partners father in Sweden as he is an engineer and pretty clued up man, I have osteoarthritis so my mobility is very poor and slow so I am now feeling the cold more than ever as I am not able to move around quickly, thank you again for your input and any more pointers would be very much appreciated.
Hi Jacob,
Thanks for for this comment – really interesting, I didn’t know quadruple glazing was even an option!
The issue I guess here in the UK is the price of the replacement windows, a simple hardwood double glazed sash starts at about £1,500 so obviously to replace a whole house worth is very expensive! Also the UK is considerably warmer than Scandinavia most of the time, so the energy savings aren’t quite as big so the investment isn’t quite the same! However a lot of very interesting points – and completely agree, with regards to typical English construction – a lot to be desired!
Hi James, i live in a very old 3 bedroomed semi detached house in Liverpool, my son is just about to insulate my home with 100mm insulation and replace our very old misted up double glazing, I have osteoarthritis so my mobility is very slow and poor so i now feel the cold something terrible, I also live on a very busy main road so the noise is quite bad from the traffic, would it be worth my while investing in triple glase as oposed to double? and wha type of price difference would I be looking at? thank you
I have a perfectly simple system. Each winter I apply bubblewrap to most windows. I simply dry the window or frame, cut wrap carefully slightly smaller than the pane (to tape to pane) or slightly larger (to tape to frame), sellotape the bubblewrap on with that nice transparent sellotape stuff, leave until spring. Low investment (I reuse most of it each year, the sellotape peels off pane and wrap fairly easily sometimes a bit of water helps, and then I put it away for a year in the loft). It looks OK, you can even make snowflake patterns if you double the stuff up in the right way, and it seems to be effective. The sellotape gives an adequate seal, the bubblewrap has air pockets, it is very easily cut and fitted to the glass or the frame. I don’t do the patio door, because I like to look out of it and its gas filled glass etc. which rest isn’t. Whole house cost me about £30 for wrap one-off and £2.50 a year for tape, I have re-used packaging bubblewrap. as well, on my 5th year of doing it.
Claire what an resourceful lady you are, absolutely fantastic!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing that wonderful idea, I came to the same solution by accident, after changing a window to open inward instead of outward it became very draughty, as it is winter I’ve not been able to fix the problem, so I used bubble wrap to seal and stop the draught until better weather arrives and I can work on it, to my amazement it has made an enormous difference in more ways than one as I also have very thick curtains, I am, personally, in no financial position to afford DG let alone TG, so it is just a perfect solution, I thank you.
Does anyone know how much more expensive (in percentage terms) a triple glazed window would be compared to double glazed – for the same dimension of frame? If not, where can we find such information?
I have just had triple glazing installed to the front of my house and the result is so pleasing. It replaced anglian double glazing which was 35 years old. during the whole of that period in just moderately cold weather the old windows were dripping in condensation, so much so that we had to place towels on the window sills each night and wipe all the windows every morning. Living on a main road the TG has made it a little quieter but the biggest improvement is in condensation. Most windows almost completely dry (perhaps 1″ at bottom) front door and side frames completely dry but when extremely cold a very fine mist on the bedroom window where we both sleep which quickly clears. The cost was almost the same as quotes for double glazing and I would definitely recommend it. having the back of the house triple glazed next.
Hello, please can you let me know if you continue to see improvement in condensation with time. Please also would you share who installed your windows.
this is an interesting discussion, double or triple? I would agree with the author, go triple if you are building on a new house, but if you still have the double glazed ones and not planning to renovate, why bother.
We have poorly fitted double glazing and have had quotes for triple glazing. My main question is =
Is standard triple glazing better or equal to a+ double glazing?
The main reason we jumped in triple is that we live opposite a railway line.
Whether it ‘stacks up’ financially depends on many things: the type of triple glazing, the type of double glazing and the building type, location and heating system.
What a misleading question … as if it has a single answer.
To cap it all, many Scandinavian experts say that triple glazing would not have been introduced in 1978 (Sweden) if they had had high performance double glazing with a U value of around 1.1. However, triple might still be needed if one wants a lower U-value than that.
If in doubt, take professional advice. Yes, there are experts who work in this field for a living, including me.
If you make the windows as warm or warmer than the walls will that not cause condensation to form on the walls causing mould and requiring frequent redecorating.In other words are not the windows the sacrificial lamb with excess internal air moisture forming on the coldest surface – It has to go somewhere
Hi Rod, you are quite right. except that a triple glazed window will have no where near the level of thermal efficiency as a well insulated wall (where the u-value can be less than 0.25w/m2k). Adequate ventilation is always the answer, and that might require new vents but also behavioural changes like opening windows and doors when cooking and potentially when in the bathroom too.
Well said Bilijana
Do you have any views on triple glazing, which one firm is claiming reduces by 50 per cent the amount of heat lost, compared with double glazing?
Hi Jacqueline, windows companies are notorious for over egging the savings associated with replacing windows. When uPVC double glazed windows first hit the market there were claims that they could have energy bills. In reality this was certainly not the case – it sounds like this particular company is making a similar kind of unrealistic claim. While triple glazing is great – it is unlikely to reduce the heat loss by 50% compared to double glazing. If you want to get technical with this, a new triple glazed unit will have a u-value of between 0.8 (for the very best) – all the way up to 1.8 if the glazing panels have no emissivity coatings. A double glazed unit ranges from 2.8 (when air filled) down to 1.6 when the double glazed unit is argon filled and both panels have emissivity coatings. So I guess if you look at the best triple glazed unit and compare it with the worst double glazed unit the savings would be relatively large.
One thing to bear in mind though is that if you insulate a wall with 100mm of EPS (externally) or 70mm of Celotex internally you will take the u-value of the wall down to 0.3 or less, and there is substantially more wall than window in most homes, so your money might be better spent looking at that as an energy saving solution rather than replacing the window!
There are not many triple glazing review from customers on here so: My home suffers from motorway noise, lots of children playing outside my house (our front room is facing the road). Our house is 10years old and had C rated double glazed fitted. The noise was a mayor issue and after reading reviews… it was confusing if triple glazed would work or would be a viable.
Anyway I took a leap into the unknown and went for triple glazed and…. its been absolutely amazing. The kids playing were waking my baby and shouting and screaming and its gone.. even when they scream at there loudest, you can barely here it. I went for a 42mm frame to maximise the gap. With the TV on, you cant here anything now!
The heat!!! my g*d who new windows could make such a difference. My home is so warm now, I should of done this along time ago…my combi was always on and I cant remember the last time it came on.
These windows have truly worked…. as its a review the only negative aspect is when the kids are playing football…you can still here ball… its a quiet sound… but more of a vibration… but they just pass with it. I can only presume its different sound waves and with the extra pain of glass it vibrates the glass more.
Anyway, we had an excellent, one man, fitter and I am sold by the triple glazing! I hope this helps.
This page on triple-glazing has a heading ‘reduce condensation’ which then does not mention let alone deal with that issue. For which you lose points!
I would suggest that you aim for a (series of) printable A4 or 2xA4 ‘article’ which, of course, emphasises your cutting-edge knowledge & skills and how you can help people!!
Hi there,
Thanks for your feedback. The ‘heading’ you saw is actually a link to another blog post all about how triple glazing can reduce condensation. I have reformatted it so hopefully it looks clearer now! We’re working on a series of printable guides at the moment.
In a word no. We have double glazed sash units which are wooden. You can’t get triple glazed wooden units due to the weight apparently, and the wife certainly won’t let me install PVC!
Is there a difference in solar gain for the living space between double & triple glazing?
I have opted for triple glazing on one bedroom window only. As the seals have perished, there is condensation between the pains, and on the inside over winter. The windows are twenty five years old, so rather than getting it repaired I decided to replace it. A new inner oak wood inner sill will be fitted at the same time. All other double glazed windows are fine, So I thought, If they are not broken why fix it. why replace them. Thank you for all the information on this page.
Please can you tell us if the new triple glazed window is different condensation wise.
We have a serious problem with condensation in a property only 10 years old. NHBC refused to honour their insurance even though the walls around french doors and windows are getting damaged by mould and independent expert blamed ‘failing doors and windows’ for this problem, Their response is that it is caused by difference between temperatures between inside/outside. They recommend we keep windows open throughout the winter whilst heating. Surely everyone experiences this difference between inside/outside temperatures and not everyone has mouldy walls around windows. We run dehumidifier without success. We also installed strong fans in bathrooms and keep windows open post showering. Would triple glazing resolve this problem?
It’s quite interesting to find other mirror and glass repair fanatics out there just like myself! It was a fine article and can’t wait to keep up with the rest of your work! My partner and I have been working with glass & glazing products for years now, it’s great to see another group talk up so much about my effort and motivation! Keep up the excellent work!
My wife and I spent a holiday in Sweden some years ago. We were on the 10th floor of a hotel, with the local railway station as a neighbour. The windows of our room were triple-glazed and we heard nothing from the trains. Triple-glazed is becoming a must for us, the older we get, especially when out sleep is frequently disturbed by the noise of pigeons outside, from 5am onwards
By what percentage does triple glazing reduce light transmission compared to double glazing?