With heating costs on the rise, plenty of homeowners are seeking ways to cut down on their monthly bill and save money in the long run.
There are hundreds of ways you can boost the energy efficiency of your house. One of the most effective ways to enhance the efficiency of your home is by opting for energy efficient glass.
What is Energy Efficient Glass?
Energy efficient glass is specially designed to reflect heat back into the home, optimising the money you spend on energy bills. Instead of escaping through windows and doors, the reflected warm air can be recirculated around the house.
Double glazed windows are considered a form of energy efficient glazing, as their insulating properties also stop warm air from escaping. The most energy efficient glass, however, is called low emissivity, or ‘low-E’ glass. The emissivity of a glass refers to how well it can radiate heat energy.
Normal glass has a relatively high emissivity rating, allowing 90% of thermal energy to escape through your windows and doors.
Low-E glass features a microscopically thin coating applied to one side. This coating is made from low emissivity materials that improve the thermal performance of the glass, such as silver and other metallic oxides. These coatings are so thin and transparent that they don’t impact the amount of light that can enter the home – maintaining the original function of windows as intended while keeping heat energy in.
Double glazed windows are often made with low-E glass, leading to more efficient fixtures that reap the benefits of both energy saving designs.
How Does Energy Efficient Glass Work?
The nature of heat energy means it will always flow towards colder areas. This is because warmer molecules move faster and collide with cooler atoms, transferring heat energy. This means any heat in your home will naturally move towards the coldest point – which is usually the glass within your windows and doors, since they are in direct contact with the cooler air outside.
Glass without a coating will absorb this heat energy, cooling your home down faster. The reflective coating on low-E glass does the opposite, reflecting most of the heat trying to escape back into the home.
Low-E glass isn’t just for keeping your home warm. Since it also reflects solar heat energy away from your windows, low-E glass can help keep your surroundings cool in the summer months too.
What are the Benefits of Energy Efficient Glass?
Having energy efficient glass installed in your home offers a range of benefits. Low-E glass is not expensive to install, especially if you already have windows you’d like to make more energy efficient. Low-E films are available if you don’t want to splash out on an entire new window, so you can quickly upgrade your own windows if you’re looking to improve the energy efficiency of your home.
Keep Your House Comfortable
In the UK, low-E glass combined with double glazing is best recommended for keeping your house warm. When we do get into those (far and few between!) summer months, energy efficient glass can help cool down your house too. This keeps your home at a more comfortable temperature year-round.
Reduce Your Energy Bills
The insulating effect of low-E glass can reduce your energy bills each year. Preventing the heat transfer through your windows, low-E coatings can reduce heat loss from the home by up to 50%.
Protect Against UV Rays
We know UV rays are harmful to our health – but they can also damage our homes and furniture. UV radiation can break down the elements that hold paint together, which is why spaces exposed to too much sunlight often have peeling paint or cracked walls. It can also lead to a sun-bleached effect, making the furniture and walls exposed to UV light look more faded than they should. Since low-E glass is made with coatings that reflect UV rays away from the home, energy efficient glass can limit the damage otherwise caused by UV light.
Keep Condensation at Bay
Low-E glass keeps the inside of your glass warmer, reducing the chance you’ll find condensation on the inside of your windows. Any condensation on the inside of your home can quickly spread, as damp environments are the perfect conditions for mould to grow in. Mould and damp also pose a variety of health risks, so low-E glass can even keep your home safer.
Less Maintenance & Upkeep
Low-E glass keeps your windows, doors, and their surroundings safer from external weather conditions. The coating on the glass is also highly durable, and more resistant to scratches than normal glass alone.
More Environmentally Friendly
Energy efficient glass is more eco-friendly as it means less fuel is used to heat the home. It can be combined with other energy efficient designs throughout your house to reduce your carbon footprint (and the costs involved) on an even greater scale.
Other energy efficient home upgrades include:
- Renewable Energy Sources – Solar Panels, Wind Turbines
- Quality Insulation
- Installing a Smart Meter
- Energy Storage Systems
- Draught Proof Materials
- Updated Heating Systems
Keep Your Home Energy Efficient with Cloudy2Clear
There’s no use investing in energy efficient glass if your windows and doors are letting heat out of your home anyway. Most fixtures are now double glazed as standard within the UK, which boosts the energy efficiency of your glass with an additional window pane that insulates your surroundings.
Despite its effectiveness, double glazing can fail over time. Failed double glazing, also known as a ‘blown window’, lets warm air escape the home through gaps in the sealant that attaches your windowpane to its frame. Windows and doors account for up to 30% of heat loss within a home, so keeping your energy efficient glass well maintained is key to maximizing savings on your energy bills.
At Cloudy2Clear, our dedicated team of double glazing repair specialists can restore your doors and windows at minimal cost. Make the most of your energy efficient glass by keeping your double glazing in check.
Call our team on 0800 61 21 119 for a free consultation. Alternatively, fill out our easy online contact form and we’ll get back to you with more information as soon as possible.
