Ensuring that your home is toasty and warm is essential for ensuring your family’s comfort, particularly during the cold winter months. However, your house may be losing a lot of heat due to drafts and inefficient windows. This may cause you to leave the central heating running for longer to heat up your home, which will in turn lead to high energy bills. Considering this, what can you do to ensure that your property is more thermally efficient to save money on heating bills? Read on to discover four tips for a thermally efficient home.
1. Install double glazing
Installing double glazing is one of the easiest ways of boosting your home’s thermal efficiency. Double glazing consists of two panes of glass, with the gap between them filled with argon gas to reduce the movement of heat, thus ensuring that heat remains in your home for longer. Although the majority of new properties are now automatically installed with double glazing, if you live in an older property that has not been fully renovated for some time, you might still be living with the original single paned windows. Install double glazing as soon as possible for an easy way to boost your thermal efficiency and make your home warmer.
2. Ensure that your existing double glazing is working efficiently
Although double glazing is made to be durable, it does not last forever and eventually you will have to replace it. The average lifespan of double glazing is around thirty years if maintained properly. Double glazing technology has improved over the decades and you might find that older installations are not as efficient as newer ones. A tell-tale sign that your existing double glazing is not working as efficiently as it used to, is if your home is experiencing any obvious drafts. The likelihood is that they are emerging from your windows and doors. Find a double glazing professional in your local area, such as an expert in windows Wolverhampton, who will be able to expertly upgrade your windows and doors.
3. Choose uPVC frames
Did you know that you window frames can also have an impact on thermal efficiency? While a traditional frame material such as timber can undeniably look very attractive, it is a very high maintenance material that requires regular upkeep to keep it looking its best. Timber frames are not weatherproof and if left unmaintained they can begin to rot or swell. This leads to drafts and damp leaking into your home. uPVC window frames, on the other hand, are a weather proof alternative that are available in a variety of colours and finishes, including an imitation timber finish for the attractive look of timber with the thermal efficiency benefits of uPVC.
4. Do not forget your doors
As well as your windows, your exterior doors are also highly susceptible to letting in drafts. As such, you should consider similar steps when increasing the thermal efficiency of your doors. If your door has a glass section which is single paned, consider replacing it with double glazing to retain some of the heat from your home.
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