Do you need double or triple glazing for your skylight?
If you’re looking to add a new skylight to your property, there’s a number of important questions you need to consider – such as what style of skylight will best suit your home? What colour of finish will match your roofing tiles? But one area that often causes confusion with our customers is whether you need double or triple glazing for your home.
In recent years, technological advancements have meant that the introduction of triple glazing has become more popular – but to the average homeowner, the differences between double and triple glazing aren’t clear. In this post, we’ll explain some of the facts between the two different types of glazing to help you make better informed decisions.
Triple glazing: how does it work?
When we talk about ‘glazing’, this simply means how many panes of glass are used in a window unit. Single glazing has a single pane of glass, while double glazing uses two panes of glass that are separated by a sealed air cavity. It’s this sealing of the air cavity that helps to insulate the window, creating a barrier between the cold and the noise of the outside, and your home.
In essence, triple glazing uses this same technique. It’s put together using three panes of glass, which creates two sealed air cavities within the unit.
How do they compare?
The easiest way to match up double and triple glazing is to consider the thickness and the U-value of the unit. U-values are used to represent how much heat your house loses – a higher figure equals more heat loss.
Our double glazed units are fitted with a thickness of 24mm and use argon cavity gas in the spaces between the panes. They also use a warm edge spacer, which separates the two panes in a double glazed unit and seals the gas space between them. This combination typically gives double glazed units an overall U-value of 1.1. In comparison, our triple glazed units have an overall thickness of 44mm. They use the same argon cavity gas and warm edge spacers as our double glazing – achieving an overall U-value of 0.6.
If you just compare the glass individually without the frames, triple glazing is around 30 per cent better at insulating your home than double glazing.
What glazing would work best in your home?
Triple glazing itself isn’t a brand new concept – it’s already widely used in colder countries such as Norway and Sweden. There are also high efficiency styles of building project – such as the PassivHaus Standard – which require triple glazed windows with a U-value of no more than 0.8.
However, triple glazing shouldn’t always be the default answer when you’re considering a skylight. Although triple glazing can give you better energy efficiency, there are a number of dependent factors.
Firstly, a better U-value relies heavily on the configuration of the glass thickness and depth of the ‘cavity’ (the air spaces in between). This layout must make sure that the centre pane has an individual U-value of below 1.0 for the triple glazing to be more effective than double glazed units.
Secondly, triple glazing will only have a true impact if it’s also paired with the right window frame to match the levels of energy efficiency that glass provides. And finally, it’s always worth remembering that more panes of glass you add to a window unit, the less natural light will enter your home. If you’re wanting to bring more light into a space by adding a skylight, make sure that you’re aware of how much light you’ll potentially lose by adding a triple glazing.
Also it is important to say that the price of a skylight can double if we move from double to triple glazing
Solar glass: an alternative option
When considering whether to get double glazing or triple glazing, there’s another option to bare in mind. Solar glass is double glazed but it has a better U-value than traditional double glazing. This makes it a good alternative if you’d prefer not to invest in triple glazing. Solar glass works by letting natural light enter your home as normal, but reflecting ‘sunheat’ out to help keep your rooms cool on sunny days. During the evening, this works in reverse – any heat from radiators or woodburners is reflected back into your room, helping to prevent it leaking out of your windows.
How to decide on double glazing or triple glazing
The best way to truly understand the impact that double or triple glazing can have on your new skylight is to chat to the professionals.
Our friendly team have over 15 years of experience in ordering and installing the highest quality skylights. We understand that your situation is unique and what might work for you, might not work for our next customers. Big or small – we’re on hand to answer any questions you may have about double glazing or triple glazing for your skylight. Just get in touch.