How to keep your home warm and secure this winter?

The recent cold snap is a reminder that winter in the UK is still cold! T&K explains how to keep your home warm and secure. The weather is part of our genetic make-up as a nation. We obsess about it and as for the weather itself – well we know reliable in as far as it’s always inconsistent. UK winters may have been getting proportionally warmer and wetter but just because we’re they’re not artic, doesn’t mean to say that they aren’t still cold.

Statistically the coldest months of the year are still ahead of us. Although temperatures can vary wildly from 15C to minus 10C, January and February consistently record the lowest annual temperatures. According to the Met Office and taking averages over the past 130 years, the 10 coldest days are spread out between 3 January and 20 February. Half of these days are in the first half of January. But then there is a gap and February 13, 14, 17, 18 and 20 are bunched together, making that the coldest week of the year. The coldest individual day is 17 February with an average minimum of 0.8C and maximum of 6.7C.

And recent cold snaps in November and early this month [DEC], are a reminder of what may be waiting for us just around the corner. Improving the thermal efficiency of their home is one of the main reasons that people buy new energy efficient windows and doors. According to the Energy Saving Trust, heat lost through windows accounts for around 25 per cent of the total energy lost from your home.

T&K supplies hundreds of energy efficient PVC-U windows and doors throughout Northamptonshire each year, making homes not only warmer but more secure. This includes an extensive range of low maintenance and energy efficient PVC-U windows. These can achieve top u-values and Window Energy Ratings (WERS), including WER A⁺⁺.

How do energy efficient double glazed and triple glazed windows work?

Glass

Glass is the single most important factor in defining the energy performance of your new windows and doors. Our glass supplier Pilkington, is at the leading edge of innovation.

All of the double and triple-glazed glass units that we supply use smart low-e coatings on glass – a one-way door for trapping and holding energy.

We also use warm-edge spacer bars, which separate the sheets of glass in double and triple-glazed units to put ‘space’ between the cold air outside and warm air inside.

This cavity is filled with argon gas. It’s completely inert in the environment and you can’t see it but because it’s denser than air, it creates a highly effective insulating barrier, helping to keep your home warm and cosy on event the coldest of days.

Window framing material

The thermal efficiency of your new windows or doors will also be defined by your choice of framing material. Aluminium is the least efficient and while timber fares a little better.

But it’s uPVC windows that deliver the best levels of energy efficiency. Our PVC-U windows feature an internal ‘honeycomb’ multi-chamber system, which create a series of thermal barriers between the warm air inside your home and cold air outside of it.

Manufactured in a UK designed and made system, our plastic framed windows feature five thermally efficient internal chambers in the sash and six in the outer frame. We enhance frame energy efficiency even further whenever possible, by swapping highly conductive steel for far more thermally efficient and ultra-strong recycled composite material reinforcements.

These further improve performance and by bringing recycled material back into use, allows us and you to do our bit for the environment.

This means that double or triple glazed units both deliver significantly improved performance over and above single or even older double-glazed units delivering savings of up to £200 per year dependent on specification of new energy efficient windows and doors and those being replaced.

For more information email us or call a member of our team for an informal chat.