Single glazing VS double glazing – what’s the best choice for you?

Single Glazing VS Double Glazing

If you are new to double glazing don’t worry, you are not alone. Although double glazing found its’ popularity in the states and Europe many decades ago, it is yet to sit in pride of place here in Australia (although we often ask ourselves why!). Double glazed windows are certainly the future in this new world that is forever looking towards energy-saving solutions, but why? Today we will explain the difference between the different glazing types available on the market and you can see for yourselves.

Single Glazing
Single glazed windows; in Sydney you see them everywhere, not just in older buildings but even in the newer constructions that you see around residential and commercial areas. The clue is in the name – single glazing. This is a window made using on a single pane of glass. Meaning the only thing between your home and the outside world is a pane of glass.

A typical pane of glass used for a window ranges from 3mm to 10mm thick. Why is that a problem?

• Inadequate insulation – a single glazed window can be up to twenty times less efficient than an insulated wall when it comes to energy loss or storage. This means that the cold from the outside can quickly transfer to your home, and vice versa.
• Leading on from poor insulation (and therefore poor energy efficiency), single panes of glass often find themselves allowing energy leakage in other ways, such as drafts through poor seals or cracks.
• Not very secure – put simply, breaking a single pane of glass is quite easy, which doesn’t add to the security of any home.

Single glazing certainly served its purpose for a time when there weren’t any other options available. But in a culture that is conscious of saving energy to reduce carbon footprints, or simply the electricity bill, single glazing simply isn’t cutting it anymore.

Double Glazing
Again the key is in the name; double glazing. Double glazing uses two panes of glass as opposed to the single pane of glass. Between these two panes of glass is vacuumed gap (filled with a dense gas called Argon gas, although you cannot see this gas), which then creates an insulated barrier between the inside world and the outside world. Sunlight, heat, sound, they can all pass through the gas, but it is this space that significantly cuts down the energy that is able to. Factory manufactured double glazed windows have been proven to be up to one hundred percent more energy efficient than their single glazed counterparts.

But what are the benefits of double glazing compared to single glazing?

• Energy efficiency – not only does double glazing ‘double up’ on the glass which in itself helps to create efficiencies, but the gap between the two panes creates even more effective insulation. This prevents the transfer of hot and cold energy alike, providing a far superior thermal insulation for the home.
• Soundproofing – a single pane of glass transmits sounds very easily, especially due to the seals for a single pane typically being significantly less efficient than the seals used for double glazing. Double glazed windows introduce a soundproofing technology never seen (or technically heard) before, again due to that gas-filled space in between the panes being a poor conductor of not only heat but also sound. This is a great feature for any home, especially one in a busy noisy city such as Sydney.
• Security – as we mentioned earlier, a single pane of glass is much easier to break and bypass. Double glazing provides a much more safe and secure option for the home.

Triple Glazing

You’re starting to get the hang of this now, so we don’t need to tell you triple glazing is exactly how it sounds. If a single glazed window has one pane of glass, a double glazed window has two panes of glass, then a triple glazed window has, you guessed it, three panes of glass.

As with the technology behind double glazed windows, triple glazed windows reply on the multiplication of the panes of glass and the subsequent low conductivity of the spaces in between the glass panes (filled with gas). So triple glazing not only has three panes of glass, but two separate argon gas-filled areas. Creating even more of an energy-efficient and sound proofing shield for your home.

If you would like to know more about the benefits of double or triple glazing for your home then please contact our team of experts at Integra Windows today. We can help you understand the many benefits that introducing multiple glazing solutions to your home can provide.