Why making a property thermally efficient is worthwhile

With today’s ever increasing energy bills, it is now more important than ever that UK homeowners replace inefficient windows and doors with more thermally efficient ones. Having said that, to ensure a property gets the full benefit from an investment in double or triple glazing property owners also need to properly insulate the loft and install cavity wall insulation or solid wall insulation, dependent on the type of house and manner of construction.

The seemingly never ending increases in the cost of energy, when combined with environmental and sustainability reasons, makes the need to insulate dwellings essential, although there is no getting away from the fact that there is

Depending on the age and construction of a UK property, to make it genuinely thermally efficient improvements needed may require one or more of investments like replacement “A+” double glazed window or even “A++” triple glazed energy rated windows, along with thermally broken doors, loft insulation, cladding, new boilers, floor insulation, energy saving light bulbs, lagging pipes and cavity wall insulation.

For home owners planning on moving rather than improving, there is still the basic requirement of actually being able to sell their particular premises, as houses that still have single glazed windows or non-thermally broken early generation double glazing are not only expensive to heat, but also unattractive to modern day buyers. Shrewd prospective purchasers will demand to reduce the asking price by at least the cost of carrying out replacement energy rated double glazing and fitting insulation throughout, along with no doubt a heavy extra discount off the asking price for being the ones “being made” to carry out this essential work.

When it comes to selling up, poorly insulated homes are inevitably shown up by the Energy Performance Certificate that all UK house owners are legally obligated to provide to prospective purchasers. The energy savings over time from fitting replacement energy rated energy saving double or triple glazing are significant and will eventually pay for the cost of installation. High quality energy rated replacement windows and doors help a property benefit from solar gain, retaining heat whilst massively reducing the amount of energy loss. They do this by not only have thermally broken frames (be they aluminium, composite or UPVC), but also by being properly fitted in the first place and by having a high double glazing specification involving Low emissivity Argon or Krypton filled sealed units with warm edge spacers (which help prevent transference of temperature) and specially coated glass that maximizes solar gain whilst stops the heat escaping.

Modern thermally broken “A++” rated UPVC triple glazed replacement windows are naturally incredibly thermally efficient, highly secure and available in some cases in the same slimmer profiles as double glazed UPVC windows, so aesthetically very attractive as well. Alternatively “A” rated aluminium double glazed windows and doors have a slimmer profile, therefore do offer more glass and light, as well as better views and of course more attractive sight lines.

Whichever energy rated fenestration product a property owner chooses, fitting replacement “A+” rated double glazed windows or triple glazed windows and doors is a real must for any property owner determined to reduce heating bills, improve home security, add value to their home and improve their day to day living environment.