Reducing Heat Losses Through Energy Efficient Window Coverings

Added: (Mon Sep 20 2010)

Pressbox (Press Release) - If your windows are ancient and aren't doing a passable job of keeping the warm air inside your house in cold weather (or keeping it out in warm weather), it might be time to consider having new, energy saving windows put in. But new windows, especially good quality energy saving ones, can be very expensive. As a result, their payback period can be quite long. For the amount of cash you would pay to redo the windows in a single big room, you can get almost the same energy efficiency with some basic weather stripping and by using energy efficient window coverings to eliminate heat transfer between your home and the out of doors.

Let's first look at how windows help keep the cold out in winter, and the hot air out in summer. Windows block heat transfer in three ways: convection, conduction, and radiation.

Windows eliminate or reduce the convection airflow between the inside and outside, blocking heat from passing through the window along with the airflow. A leaky window, or one with cracked glass or broken putty, allows air through these gaps, so heat gets out in winter, and heat leaks in during the summer.

Even a very thin sheet of glass has some insulating properties, but if the glass is double-glazed and the space between the panes is an inert gas such as argon, the panes provide extra insulating value, which reduces heat transfer through conduction. Conduction is what causes the metal handles of a pot to heat up when you boil water in the pot; so you can guess that a metal window frame, if not properly built, can conduct a lot of heat. While you can't easily add extra glass sheets to a window, there are other techniques to create additional still air spaces between the window glass and the room, which will add insulation and reduce conduction losses.

Radiation, the third type of heat transfer, usually occurs when light in the infrared spectrum passes through windows, heating the air inside, or when heat inside the room radiates out through the glass. Home energy auditors sometimes take infrared photographs of a home to show where heat losses are most significant, and windows are typically one of the largest sources of heat escaping from houses in winter.

How does this knowledge about heat transfer through convection, conduction, and radiation help you cut energy losses through your windows?

The first problem to address is convection. If your windows have cracked panes, get them repaired. If you still have the old wood-framed windows with putty holding the glass in, inspect the pane for any peeling or missing putty. It's fairly easy to pull old putty out with a putty knife and put a fresh layer of putty on in its place. If the wood of the window itself is broken, or if the glass is hard to get out for replacing, you may not be able to put off getting new windows, but if you can cut the small air leaks, you'll have gone a long way towards minimizing energy losses and should feel some relief in your utility bills.

You may be surprised to learn how much heat can travel out of a home in cold weather through the wood trim around a window. Just wait for a really cold day, put all the exhaust fans on in your house( kitchen range vent, bathroom exhaust fans, etc.), and run your hand along the edges of window and exterior door trim on the inside of rooms. Anywhere you feel cold air coming in, you have a draft that should be sealed. It won't hurt to run a thin bead of clear or white caulking around window and door frames to cut this convection heat transfer.

The last thing to try to reduce convection heat transfers is to use tape-on or Zip-Loc type energy saving window kits to seal any windows that are particularly drafty, or windows that really need replacing but that can't be replaced because of your budget (or because you are renting the place). These kits are a great way to rapidly reduce your heating losses in winter: the kits normally come with several sheets of three by five foot transparent plastic, and a roll of double sided tape. (If you have a large number of windows to cover you can purchase a 48" roll of the plastic and buy the tape separately.) You measure and cut plastic rectangles slightly wider than the window, run the tape around the window frame, peel off the protective tape from the double sided tape, then set the cut plastic over the window, sealing along the tape line. Blow dry the plastic for five minutes, and it shrinks to form a tight, flat extra pane of 'glass' that is hardly unnoticeable. This plastic can hold its taut shape for months, although you may find it needs an occasional short blow dryer blast to pull up the odd wrinkle in the plastic.


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