Insulating a flat - Thermal Curtains or Extra Glazing?

Fire_Fox

I own a mid floor flat in a converted office block which was built in the sixties. Heating is radiant panel heaters which I aim to not use at all this winter (have twice before!). As it is a flat both cavity wall and loft insulation are a no go.

I only have one external north-facing wall, with double glazed tilt-and-turn windows. There are six panes of glass in the living area alone, each just under one metre square. The metal frames act as a cold bridge, we get terrible condensation and I am in the habit of opening a couple of windows daily year round. I wish to insulate this area better.

My options seem to be to buy some floor-to-ceiling thermally lined and interlined curtains and/ or apply a magnetic 'secondary glazing' to make the windows triple glazed. What are the benefits of each in terms of reducing heat loss? Are there any other cost effective options?

Fire_Fox

Shameless bump.

Peartree

Terribly sorry, not answering your question but hopefully increasing the bump!

I have mainly double glazed but a few non double glazed windows due to their rather nice stained-glass-ness. I'd be fascinated to hear the answer to this one.

I'm in the midst of making new curtains for my big, circular stained glass non-double-glazed bay window. The research I did suggested that 'black out' lining is more insulating than so called 'thermal' lining so I went for that. However, as I haven't hung it yet I can't comment.

chrisg1985

hi firefox, if you tell me what type of window you have or show me a picture I will certainly be able to tell you the best way of insulating what you have. cheers

chrisg1985

Peartree wrote: »

Terribly sorry, not answering your question but hopefully increasing the bump!

I have mainly double glazed but a few non double glazed windows due to their rather nice stained-glass-ness. I'd be fascinated to hear the answer to this one.

I'm in the midst of making new curtains for my big, circular stained glass non-double-glazed bay window. The research I did suggested that 'black out' lining is more insulating than so called 'thermal' lining so I went for that. However, as I haven't hung it yet I can't comment.

if you have the money there are highly specialised companies which will remove your stained glass and turn them into double glazed units. It is however an expensive process. Last time I ended up doing this for a customer a few months back cost them well over 1k just to re-use thier existing joinery a window. cheers

dander

Personally I would always start with curtains as the cheapest, easiest solution to cold around windows. A decent thick pair of curtains will provide loads of protection from the cold but do be sure to get good thick ones with plenty of fabric in them. Make sure they are wide enough to still be gathered even when full drawn.

The down side is that it won't stop the condensation on the windows and may even make it worse. The plus side is that with the curtains shut you won't see it!

Fire_Fox

chrisg1985 wrote: »

hi firefox, if you tell me what type of window you have or show me a picture I will certainly be able to tell you the best way of insulating what you have. cheers

Sorry for late reply, I forgot I'd posted this thread!!

I don't have a picture of the windows, but it's just six one metre square panes of double glazing all together in a massive block, the thick glazing bars are made of metal coated in a plastic film. Two of the six panes are tilt-and-turn and four are fixed panes and there are no trickle vents. It's a converted office block: a family member reckons modern windows would have insulation embedded in the metal but mine don't. What else do you need to know?

I now have curtains hung - medium weight unfortunately as we couldn't find anything nice design, long enough AND thermal lined. :rolleyes: There are three curtains up so plenty of material, but the difference in temperature is just 0.5C colder behind the curtains. So I still need more insulation ...

Fire_Fox

Another bump.

ormus

extra plastic glazing will be better than any curtains. and i dont see why curtains would be any cheaper?
have you seen the price of lined curtains now?
also as to the work involved, if you need to put up another curtain rail into a concrete lintel, thatll be as much work as fitting the glazing.

bundly

I bought sheets of rigid plastic and attached them with strips of magnet.....

Petrarch74

As it was built in the sixties, it should have been built with a cavity, shouldnt it? From my understanding, cavitys were built into external walls in most houses after the 1920's, if this is the case you will see a regular brick pattern on the outside of the house (i.e. long brick, long brick, long brick), if not cavity, then it will be an irrgular pattern (i.e. long brick, short brick). Cavitys are easily filled with insulation such as our Rockwool EnergySaver. If you have a solid wall, then you could use dry lining solutions internally to increase insulation at a cost to some space, but you will achieve good energy saving and some mineral solutions offer acoustic insulation from external noise as well.