Energy efficient glass windows for the home or office are becoming an increasingly popular option. The main reasons come down to core benefits for the environment, personal comfort, and your wallet.
Good for the environment
Energy efficient glass helps you reduce your household’s carbon footprint. This is even more true for commercial spaces and towering multistory buildings — basically any corporate, industrial, or retail setting with a lot of windows! It’s an easy way to engage a long-term sustainable practice and be environmentally responsible.
If you need some hard data, research from the University of Florida found that, over the last 30 years, energy-efficient windows reduced energy impacts by 774 Gigawatt hours. That’s the equivalent of reducing carbon emissions by 547 million metric tons, or one-year equivalent of electricity use by 70 million households, or taking 118 million cars off the road.
Good for your comfort
Traditional windows are like a black hole for energy because they have no (or very little) insulation. In a typical old school infrastructure (and even some new ones!), the walls and ceiling are insulated, but the windows are left to release hot and cool air — when you don’t want them to.
Winter warmth makes a quick getaway through poorly designed windows, while unwelcome scorching heat makes itself at home in summer. As a result, you heavily rely on heating and cooling systems to restore your comfort. And, you need to run them for a long time, on high power, because your windows are actively working against your mission to keep the heat in or cool out.
With energy efficient glass on your side, you’ll need to turn to these systems far less — usually only in the season extremes, and often not at all in Spring or Autumn. Plus, heating and cooling systems slowly host mould and dust, and if they aren’t regularly maintained, can blow our harmful bacteria and other particles that cause health problems. So, you’ll also be more comfortable health-wise, and reduce your risk of breathing in yucky air-born germs.
Good for your wallet
As we touched on above, energy-efficient glass massively reduces the need for heating and cooling appliances. As a result, your power bills are heaps lower. Additionally, with energy-efficient glass, you won’t need to close the blinds to help control the temperature. With the curtains open more, you’ll save money by enjoying the natural light, and not using lights unnecessarily during the day.
Every home is different — the size, the family members, and the family habits. Every house uses their energy differently, but here’s a rough idea of the average residential savings when you swap to energy efficient glass. The average annual power bill in Australia is $3,300 — about 40% of that figure comes down to heating and cooling, which is around $1,320. Even if your heating and cooling costs were only reduced by 25%, you could still save $330 each year! That’s a huge chunk of money that you could put to better use when you install energy efficient windows.
Get a quote
If you’re ready to start exploring energy efficient glass for your home, get in touch for a free quote. If you need more reasons to replace your old windows, we can fill you in on that, too.
