Frequently Asked Questions About Double Glazing

Frequently Asked Questions About Double Glazing

Double glazing has become the norm in Europe and the USA in the last 30 years, and it is only now starting to reach the Australian market. As this wonderful new product starts to make its way into more and more homes every year, we wanted to pick up on a few of the frequently asked questions that come up when we’re informing our customers about what it is they’re buying and how it benefits them.

There are so many reasons to jump from single glazing up to double glazing that we won’t be able to list them all here, but hopefully, we can help those still sitting on the fence as to whether they’re ready to make this key improvement to their homes. 

What Is Double Glazing?

Double glazing is the application of two panes of glass being situated on two sides of an insulating gas that keeps thermal energy from escaping or entering through the window. Typically, with single glazing, a lot of thermal energy is able to pass through the glass as the single pane of glass will be in contact with the two different temperatures on the inside and the outside. If you extend this to the home, you’ve got many points of vulnerability where heat can exit the home.

With double glazing, each pane of glass is in contact with a temperature on either side of the window. The insulating gas that sits between the panes keeps each pane of glass from touching the other one, isolating the temperatures of the interior and exterior from each other. 

How Does The Insulating Gas Work?

Argon is the typically used inert gas that is housed between the two panes of glass to keep them from coming into contact with each other. Thermal energy is passed through objects as hot particles come into contact with cold particles. As the heat always wants to go where it is coldest, keeping something at the same temperature is difficult. However, with an insulating gas such as argon, the heat energy dissipates as it very slowly through the gas, essentially being absorbed by the argon between the two panes of glass.

The process helps keep the temperature consistent in the interior of the home. If it is colder outside, the insulating gas keeps the thermal energy from rapidly escaping through the window, leaving the interior warmer for longer. It works the opposite way, too, with thermal energy being kept outside when the interior is cool.

What Frames Do You Use?

Here at Ecostar Double Glazing, we use uPVC frames across all of our products. Like double glazing, uPVC is an extremely popular product throughout Europe and the United States. It is a wonderfully affordable option compared to aluminium, and the product’s longevity is vastly superior to timber. Traditional timber installations have developed a reputation for degrading over time and losing their effectiveness, particularly when it comes to security and thermal efficiency. 

uPVC is a recyclable alternative to timber as it does not degrade over time in the same way. Once the window has run its life course, the installation can be taken and recycled into something new!

What Are The Core Benefits Of Double Glazing?

In a nutshell, there are three:

• Increased thermal efficiency
• Substantial noise reduction
• Heightened levels of security

Thermal efficiency has been mentioned already in the section about the insulating gas. 

Our double glazing is able to reduce noise in your home by approximately 90%! The process works much in the same way as it does for thermal energy. Noise passes through vibrations in the particles in the air. As noise travels, it dissipates as it covers a wider area. A louder noise vibrates more of the air around it, thus needing more space to dissipate. Whereas a quiet noise barely vibrates any of the air around it, keeping the noise travelling far because it dissipates quickly. When noise passes through a solid object, it dissipates even further, as it is difficult to make solid particles vibrate in the same way gas particles do. Having an extra pane of glass and a layer of inert gas for the noise to pass through dissipates significantly before reaching the inside of your home, thus disturbing you significantly less. 

The increased security is a lot simpler than the other two benefits. Quite straightforwardly, two panes of glass are thicker than one, thus making it much more difficult for potential intruders to break through. Furthermore, our uPVC frames feature multi-lock systems that are top of the range in terms of the security they provide the home. In short, your home will be much more secure with our double glazing.

How Much Is It Going To Cost Me?

Unfortunately, there is no quick, catch-all answer to this one. If you are interested in double glazing from Ecostar, though, then please get in touch with us with details of your project, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible with a quote for your project!