How sash windows can make your building low carbon

Sash windows have improved over the years and can now significantly decrease the amount of carbon your buildings create. These upgrades work to maintain your buildings whilst having little impact visually.

This helps avoid a series of planning issues whilst satisfying other government energy efficiency expectations. The main upgrades that will improve your carbon consumption are sash window draught proofing, sash window repair, and double glazing sash windows.

Sash window draught proofing works brilliantly on old sash windows. If your building is listed and you are not allowed double glazing then this can be a significant benefit to you. Draught proofing works to fill all the gaps around the old windows that are required in order that the window can still travel smoothly.

A series of brush piles are installed around the perimeter of of the windows. As Which rightly points out, draught proofing can save as much as £90 by dropping the thermostat by just one degree. Sash window draught proofing can actually save £110 a year on the average home, more in cases where the windows were previously poorly fitted. Converting that into carbon, that’s a considerable drop in carbon emissions from your listed building.

Sash window repair is extremely effective at reducing carbon emissions indirectly. If you don’t repair sash windows then you’ll need to replace them. The amount of energy required to replace a sash window is quite considerable.

Firstly you have the logging process, then the process of making glass. You then have the energy expenditure of the manufacture and fitting process. These combined amount to a significant carbon consumption which can be reduced by simple sash window repair.

There are many window companies, but most notably London Sash Window Repairs Ltd lead the way in reducing carbon consumption and preserving original sash windows. Their sash window repair page clearly and impressively shows that almost any sash window can be repaired in any building. London is filled with buildings that contain sash windows and this is a really sustainable and environmentally friendly way of reducing carbon output. They are also leading the way in re-using original sash window frames and installing double glazing as Reuters reports here.

Double glazed sash windows when combined with draught proofing seriously reduce the energy consumption and combined with Pilkington’s modern low-e glazing the results of heat insulation and absorption are quite considerable. Looking at the Pilkington website they are quite clear this glass will save you money on your energy bills. These savings represent significant reduction in carbon emissions.

With sash windows technology advancing rapidly, it makes sense for home and building owners to take advantage of the potential carbon reductions now available to them where old sash windows are present. In London it is estimated there are 70 million sash windows. If each of these windows were energy efficient and reducing carbon consumption it would go a long way toward improving the environment not only locally, but on a national scale. That’s why the uk government rolled out Building part-L in April 2002. The plan for the next generations is to ensure that all windows that are replaced will be double glazed and energy efficient. With sash windows having a lifespan of over a hundred years it will take some time, but we will get there.