Energy Efficient Windows & Doors: A Key Component to Home Energy Upgrades but Comes with a Word of Warning!
When it comes to making your home more energy efficient, upgrading your windows and doors is a crucial step to take and one that is often overlooked.
Poorly installed windows and doors are among some of the most common issues with achieving airtightness in a building and contribute to significant heat loss, cause cold draughty environments, and lead to increased energy bills.
Energy Efficient Windows
Energy-efficient windows are designed to minimize the amount of heat lost through them, thereby reducing the amount of energy required to heat your home.
As Glass is still the weakest link when it comes to heat retention, it is always best to install windows with a low ‘U-value’, such as triple-glazed windows to ensure maximum thermal efficiency.
U-values are a metric for assessing thermal efficiency, with a lower value indicating superior heat retention characteristics in the material.
Lowest U Value = Highest Energy Saving
U-values are a metric for assessing thermal efficiency, with a lower u-value indicating superior heat retention characteristics in the material.
Installing energy-efficient windows & doors has several benefits, including:
- Improved Energy Efficiency
- Increased Comfort
- Noise Reduction
- Reduced Carbon Emissions
- Improves the aesthetics & value of the home
Energy Efficient Doors
When it comes to home energy upgrades, upgrading your exterior doors is often overlooked and can have a great impact on the efficiency of your home.
Grants for Window and Door Upgrades
If you upgrade your home using the One Stop Shop grant, the SEAI gives an allowance for window upgrades and 2 external doors
A Word of Warning About Windows & External Wall Insulation
If you are planning a Home Energy Upgrade project, that includes External Wall Insulation, it’s crucial to assess the quality of your windows and doors first.
If your windows and doors have been in place for a while, let’s say 15 years or more, it’s likely they will need to be replaced in the coming years. Failing to upgrade your windows before installing External Wall Insulation could lead to problems in the future.
Not only are you impacting and compromising the efficiency of the External Wall Insulation now, but when you go to replace the windows and doors in the future, it is very likely to damage the insulation.
We strongly advise against this order of installation and would go so far as to ask you to consider windows and doors upgrades before looking at External Wall Insulation.