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Windows are great for allowing in extra light and for soaking up these gorgeous views we have here in Queenstown, but they also can be known to let cold air into your home if not properly glazed.

Carrying on from the insulation theme of our winter warmer series blog #1, if your home’s roof, walls and floor are insulated but your windows are poorly glazed, cold spots will appear around the windows at night causing drafts and condensation- not only sending your money down the drain but creating an unhealthy environment for you and your family. Referring back to the metaphor of dressing ourselves, having poorly glazed windows in your home is like putting wooly sock on your feet and a wooly hat on your head but then wearing a summer outfit of shorts and t-shirt.

Living in a rental while we built our home made us realise how important good quality glazing is. Our rental which was also here in Jacks Point, Queenstown, had poorly double glazed windows and LOTS of them, so the rooms got unbearably HOT in the summer months, FREEZING in the winter and all the heat we would gather over the evening would be gone by the time we got up in the morning. I never realised how passionate I could be about windows until living in this rental- it was seriously ridiculous. I mean the house we lived in was only 2 years old and yet drafty, cold and so hard to live in.

Do me a favour, go and stand next to your windows, or even better lean against your windows first thing on a winter morning and have a good think about what you feel. Cold? That’s not good- wet? Even worse.
When you touch a windowpane on a cold day and it feels cold, it’s likely to be as cold as the outside air. When the warm (inside) air hits the windowpane, it cools and the heat escapes outside. That’s really not good. But unfortunately, a huge amount of homes in NZ have been built and designed poorly like this over the years causing all kinds of health issues for young Kiwis. Thankfully these days the building code now lays down minimum requirements for new windows – basically that your new build must have a minimum of double glazing. However, if they are not good quality glazing you will still have all the previously mentioned problems. Investment in glazing in Queenstown really should be a priority.

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We weren’t willing to take the risk- we wanted the best quality for the best price, and so we looked around a little and found exactly what we were after. If you come to us early, with time up your sleeve, we can help point you in the right direction, but often these quality products can take longer to have produced and or have a longer wait time and therefore aren’t always an option if you are wanting your build started in ‘a months time’ for example.

We ended up choosing triple glazed windows, with added UV protection, wooden internal frames and aluminium externals (meaning greater proof against the elements).

To help you realise why we came to this conclusion, you’d need to understand the energy efficiency (the EE) of windows if you don’t already. The EE of windows is measured with a ‘U-Value’ and the lower the value is, the better. Single glazing generally has a U-value of around 5, older double glazing about 3 and new modern double glazing a U-value of 1.6, which is mainly due to improved methods of double glazing compared to older models. These improvements have been made through optimisation of the window cavity, the use of low emissivity coatings, and using aluminium spacers or ‘cold bridges’.

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All this has brought down the U-value of modern windows considerably. So many people ask why we didn’t think then that double glazing was enough and if triple glazing was really worth it? To give an indication of our thinking process… walls have a U value of around 0.3….! That makes it more clear that windows have a long way to go before they are no longer a weak point in the efficiency of the building. ( In Scandinavia, triple glazing is now pretty much standard, with modern triple glazing taking the U-value of the windows down to around 0.8).

While we are suggesting you invest in a more expensive option than your basic glazing option installed in most homes, there are some options out there in thermally broken, double glaze windows in New Zealand that while better are still affordable. We have a great relationship with a number of glaziers that offer products that are specifically designed to withstand the climate that we exist in, here in Queenstown.

I can now stand next to my windows on the coldest of mornings (and we sure get cold mornings here) and feel NO COLD from them. Our house is warm and dry and we get to enjoy our incredible views for longer.

If you are planning a new build in Queenstown, we’ll help you look after the important people in your life by helping you make clever decisions for your build. Call Rob now on 02108182176