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How
does Double Glazing work?
Double glazing works by trapping air between two
panes of glass. This trapped air creates an insulating
barrier which provides three functions. First of all
it prevents heat loss or gain through the window because
the barrier insulates the room from differing air
temperatures at either side of the glazing unit. Secondly,
double glazing helps keep noise pollution down. The
third benefit of double glazing is that it helps reduce
condensation. Condensation commonly occurs on the
inside of single glazed windows due to the warm air
inside the house being cooled by the cold outside
air. With a double glazed window the insulating barrier
prevents the transmission of air temperature and therefore
prevents condensation occurring. |
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| Although double glazing insulates against
differing air temperatures, it does not insulate against
radiant heat. This makes a double glazed unit an good
choice for permitting the winter sun to warm the inside
of the house. Click
here to find out more about Radiant, Convective and
Conductive heat transfer. |
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Why are
the double glazed units filled with Argon gas?
An improvement that can be made to the thermal
performance of insulating glazing units is to
reduce the conductance of the air space between
the layers of glass. In most double glazing
units, the space is filled with air or flushed
with dry nitrogen just prior to sealing. In
a standard sealed glass insulating unit, air
currents between the two panes of glazing carry
heat to the top of the unit and settle into
cold pools at the bottom. |
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Filling the space with a less
conductive, more viscous, or slow-moving gas
such as Argon minimizes the convection currents
within the space, conduction through the gas
is reduced, and the overall transfer of heat
between the inside and outside is reduced. This
phenomenon results from the fact that the density
of the gas is greater than the density of the
air.
All of the double glazed units we use at Bond
Homes are filled with Argon gas*. This type
of double glazing has a marked improvement,
(up to 30%) in thermal performance over standard
double glazing.
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*Argon gas
is an inert gas which is non-toxic and non-flammable.
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