Best Glass For your pvc windows & Doors

To a lot of people this may seem straight forward. Just get the best insulated glass that you can afford and that's your answer. In general that was the case years ago but as glass got better at keeping heat in. People found it was also keeping heat out. So in the morning when the sun should be after heating up your house. The opposite was happing and you would be spending money on heating when you should not be.

So what should you be looking out for when choosing the right glass for your windows. Well six things really which are listed below. No I know most people won't need all the tings listed below, But when choosing you should consider all of them and choose which will suit your house best.

Solar Gain - Insulation - Security - furniture / Curtin Fading - Sun Glare - Noise

Solar Gain - This is the ability of the glass to allow the suns
heat into the house while still trapping the maximum amount of heat inside. You
would use this on the south side of the house which would get the sun first
thing in the morning. The glass would normally be double glazed with a low-E
coating on the inside. The Low-e coating is designed to reflect the heat back
into the room. While this will still stop some of the suns heat getting in. It
will allow enough in to warm your house in the morning and still giving good
insulating at night time. Depending of what part of the world you live in, you
can adjust the solar gain on the sun side to suit. Your local window company
will advise you on the best type for your location

Insulation - Now this is a bit more straight forward. On the side of your house which gets the least amount of sun you get the best insulated glass you can afford. So in general a well designed house will have the best insulated glass on one side, and on the other side it will have the best solar gain glass. Also about insulated glass what you have to watch out for is. Some companies will sell you double glazing which will be filled with some sort of gas and tell you that this is better than triple glazing. But the facts are this gas leaks out over a few years, than you are just left with standard double glazing. If you can afford it triple glazing is better plus it will keep out more noise.

Secuirty - now this is something most people never think about when changing windows or upgrading there glass. They think once they have good locks on there windows they are fine. But the rack about it is that when a break in happens. It is a result of glass being broken. So have a look around your house and see which are the most likely to be used on a break in. Than if you can afford it have These ones fitted with a toughned glass which is almost impossible to break. If you have a double or triple glazed windows you only need one of the panes to be toughned this will work out cheaper for you. But remember to have plenty of fire exits in your house because you won't be able to break the glass to get out.

Furniture / Curtin Fading - If you have a lot of glass in a room you may want to check that your glass is able to block out the UV rays of the sun. It is these rays which cause furniture & curtains to fade. Most double and triple glazing will have this feature built in but it is safer to check as you can not add it later.

Sun Glare - If you have a room which gets a lot of sun and is uncomfortable to sit in. Than maybe you should think about getting glass with a bronze tint in it. This will reduce the suns glare by huge amounts. Plus if you have a TV in that room you will be able to see it more clearly once you have the tint fitted to the glass

Noise - If you are living on a busy street or just in an area were there is a lot of noise. Than don't just get double glazing thinking this will sort your problem. While double glazing is good at keeping noise out you can still improve on it. Standard double glazing is made up of two 4mm panes of glass. If you change these to 6mm panes you get better noise reduction. Plus to go even better you can use triple glazing with 6mm pains of glass. The only thing you have to watch out for here is the extra weight of glass. You must make sure the window openings are designed to take this extra weight or else you will only keep breaking the window hinges

Conclusion - No matter what part of the world you live in Solar
gain should always be a factor when choosing glass. If you live in a hot climate
all you do is reverse it to keep heat out and cool air in. But as you can see
from above, glass has come on a long way and if you don't ask the right
questions when ordering. You will only get the glass which the window company
can make the most money from. So it does pay to do a bit of research. Remember
it is your house and no one knows your house better than you

Double glazing Tips

• The lower the U-Value the better the insulation factor is
• Gas units will preform better for a few years but after that the gas will leak out.
• Warm edge spacer bar is 200% better than the standard aluminium spacer bar
• Some of the new types of double glazing can have a 25 year warranty. Due to the fact that some warm edge spacer bars make such a good seal onto the glass.
• Double glazing can be made up of many different types of formations like different thickness of glass can be used for different purposes. Example if you need more sound proofing a thicker can be used instead of the standard 4mm glass

Some Facts about glass

- Glass is known as the (fourth state of matter) since it’s considered to be a liquid, but has no solid or gas state

- Glass is made of super-cooled liquid. The molecules are just moving very, very slowly which makes it feel like a solid

- In 1994 there were enough glass bottles and jars recycled in the U.S. So, if they were laid end to end, they’d reach the moon and half way back to the earth.

- Using recycled glass helps cut air pollution by twenty percent and more

- Recycling just one glass bottle saves enough energy to light up a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.

- One ton of recycled glass saves the energy equivalent of 10 gallons of oil

- Glass never wears out, meaning it can be recycled over and over again so don't dump it recycle it over and over.

- Glass has been part of human cultures for more than 3,000 years

- Tempered glass or thounghned safety glass, never just cracks when hit.Tempered glass is extremely strong, but as a safety precaution, when it does get a big enough blow, it will shatter into small pieces, instead of sharp edges

- Windshields are made of laminated glass, which help hold pieces of glass in place, in the event of an accident.