I obviously don’t know the size or build of your house, but that is a huge amount of energy you’re using. Lets say all your appliances are within 10 years old, they’re not going to be adding up to a huge amount of drain.
Double glazing greatly solves the window loss. Triple glazing doesn’t add much extra, if anything.
Detached single story houses lose the most heat. The walls and ceilings conduct the most heat from your home. My house has poorly insulated walls and it takes hours to heat up and loses temp overnight. There’s a difference between a modern insulated home and a well built modern insulated home. I was at Sarah Beeny’s new house (excuse me, I’ll just pick that up) and I leant against her walls before plastering. They felt warm! An extra layer of of internal insulation to the one in between the bricks. Brilliantly built.
Any drafts and/or gaps around doors is a big heat loss.
I’ve been surprised how many window suppliers (many who don’t do triple) say that. They appear to be comparing best DG (low emissivity coatings, argon or even krypton gas) with basic triple. Triple with same coatings and gas fill is another matter. Of course it also depends on the frames and pane size, with D&TG the frames commonly being significantly less insulating than the glass, poor frames with small glass panes making the whole window U value difference between D&TG a lot smaller. The bigger the glass to frame ratio the greater benefit triple has. And quieter (both directions, note for music rooms!). And the only condensation ever is on the outside - because the outside pane is not warmed, so is just like, say, a car windscreen.
Indeed. I went and tested different glazing in a -23c room. With the high end tripple glazing compared to high end double, you feel almost no difference touching the glass with that cold room behind it. The best double glazing was still cold to the touch.
I work with producers and suppliers of dg/tg and the subject is complex when you take into account the frame design to accommodate tg and other issues. To sum up, tg is not worth it.
“Worth it” is a value judgement and that is one that has to be made by the householder. Certainly I consider my triple glazing to have been well worth it – but as I said, before, I have not in any way considered payback cost, as when doing it, I expected to be in the house for very many years, and with the awareness that energy costs always go up. (My windows have large glass to frame ratios, so as I mentioned triple is more beneficial in relative terms than with smaller windows.) And the comfort aspect, especially quietness (inside plus less of my music outside when playing loud) is something I appreciate. “Worth it” here is much the same as people apply to hifi purchases.
Indeed, awful things, though, of course, they were an attempt to provide a minimal level of ventilation when People sealed up the gaps around their windows etc. infinitely better is whole house ventilation with heat recovery.
The system I’ve just installed in my son’s house is the third I’ve done, the first back in the early 1990s using a basic system from Wickes, which was surprisingly easy to fit in a 1920s semi, and made a noticeable difference to the quality of air in the house. In my own house, 12 years ago, I fitted a far more advanced system, my son’s now similar to mine but a bit less sophisticated. However, if you ask if it is worth the cost, to many people the answer may be no, especially of course as there is no payback cost as such. Hiwever it is certainly worth it to me as I value the benefits it brings in terms of no house smells as well as no condensation/damp problems - I would never want to have a house without it. (At least not in this part of the world).
My TG is by Internorm of Austria. It is wooden frames with powercoated aluminium externally. Nearly tens years on it looks like new. The effective U value was silly small 0.64 w/m2/C with 28mm units and argon. Best of all don’t have to paint 23 units inside or out.
We looked into replacing our windows a few years ago.
For a “cheap” double glazed alternative, we were quoted ca. £70k. Whereas like for like Crittall windows (but double glazed) would be at least double that.
As much as it annoys me to pay so much for heating, that’s a massive capital outlay that I’ll never get close to getting back. and it’s only really an issue 3 months of the year.
Cons of tg; tend to fail more, less light transmission, not noticeabley quieter, more expensive to buy and replace, and much heavier (meaning profile, hinge and fittings need to be designed specifically with some aesthetic/cost issues).
The frame and excluder is where a lot of the noise comes from and the spacer bar is where a lot of the heat goes. You want to see some of the technical excluders I photograph, which I don’t see installed very often.
Frame design/construction, the installation and the quality of the glass units are far more important than the statement “I have tg, I find it cost effective and better”. You’ll be replacing the whole windows anyway, as nothings lasts.
The statement that on a very large pane area, tg is better thermally insulated than dg for similar quality, is correct, but it pretty much meaningless in real life situations.
P.S. All my knowledge comes from the manufacturers and suppliers I work with (their MDs and product design dept) and not sales literature (which I do the work for).
Avg 28 KWh electricity
Avg 1m3 gas
Estimate 10 kg wood
Half of the electricity is used by our refugee who has an electric heater and apparently needs to have it 23 deg Celsius in her room which causes fungus since ventilating the room is too cold.
The fungus (black mold) is now in control since I’ve wheeled in an dehumidifier.
I’ve ordered an Aeg heater/airco which is much more efficient and will save us 10 kWh per day.
Our house is 100 yrs old, detached and medium insulation.
The fire place is magic. That’s what keeps us warm.
For the last few days it’s been creeping up. Yesterday I used 108KWh per day, with gas heating on for about 6 hours by using 1 hour boost button.
Today being on GrandTwin duty, it’s been on for just over 12 hours continuously reaching just 119KWh. So clearly it just shows how much more efficient a boiler is at working all day, rather than intermittently. I do have the temp of the boiler turned down to also help here.
Nothing from Solar at the moment, but hoping for a couple of good days to get the washing and dishes done
Well actually I thought they were low, but I guess until you compare, you never know. My house is detached, but I do keep the temp of most rooms right down or off, which is a little harder when the Twins have the run of the place, so doors get left open. It includes electricity also, although I only use about 6-7KWh per day, so mostly Gas.
Annually I use about 8,000KWh of Gas per year, helped by my Solar panels which means I use zero gas for at least 3 summer months. The Standard use for my house would be 17.000KWh of gas, so I think I’m doing OK
1m3 gas = 9.x kWh. Gas is not bad at all. I’m doing to switch off the heat pump and use gas again as a consequence of the ‘prijsplafond’ - you’ll understand since you’re Dutch too
It should be on your bill. The volume you use has a different cost when its colder than when its warmer, so the volume used get converted to kWh using a slightly different formula each month. However as a rough guideline, try multiplying by 11.28
I don’t have gas where I live, but district heating (stadsverwarming), which is measured in GJ. When I had gas in previous houses I’m sure it was calculated in m3.
Air Souced Heat Pump (ADHP) is interesting at the moment as we are all being encouraged to move to it, and for good reason. The downside is that the temperature of your radiators never goes that high, so to counteract that, you have them on longer - fair enough so far.
Now we are all being asked to also turn down our boiler water temperatures for better efficiency, but this has the similar effect of lower temperature radiators.
Now for most months, people will not be too put out by this, but as we are now into minus x degree C temperatures, we are all getting a taster of whether our houses will still manage to generate enough heat to warm our houses. After today, I can certainly see me having to raise the boiler temperature if it goes any colder outside, meaning that a ASHP would also require many other changes within my house, and therefore costlier.
Sorry, don’t want to divert this thread - just thought it was interesting to see how people might cope with turning down their boiler temp.
