curtains heat retention?

234d

I have wooden double glazed windows, the gap is 12mm between panes.

They are in good condition and the only drafts are from the trickle ventilation vents, now closed.

There is ventilation in the kitchen as we have a gas cooker and gas heating and we keep that door closed.

The present curtains in the bedrooms and lounge are nothing special, no lining, just cheap curtains.

How much heat loss would fully lined curtains prevent going out the windows or would we never save the cost of new lined curtains costing in the region of £150 - £300?

Also how much heat loss do curtains prevent anyway if there are no drafts from the windows?

HappyMJ

The curtains you have will be fine. Keep the trickle vents open. They'll help reduce condensation and damp issues. Curtains help reduce heat loss but you need to open them in the day to allow the sun to heat the room then close them as the sun goes down to keep that heat in. They don't need to be thick curtains. Might save about £2 on the gas central heating bill per curtain per year...if you're lucky.

lostinrates

Having seen an arrival with an amazing thermal image of heat loss of interlined curtains I was always glad we had them in the past and plan to have them in new curtains.

We have wooded historic grade double glazing int eh rooms we have done. One room has no curtains in yet. The different in heat in amazing between that, the one with a properly interlined curtain and the one with a mixture of curtains. All the rooms are different she's and different numbers of windows, so its all a bit hard to put it down to one thing, but I'll be interlining.

paddy's_mum

You might care to hunt for a post I made on 21 August this year on exactly this subject.

Errata

234d wrote: »

I have wooden double glazed windows, the gap is 12mm between panes.

They are in good condition and the only drafts are from the trickle ventilation vents, now closed.

There is ventilation in the kitchen as we have a gas cooker and gas heating and we keep that door closed.

The present curtains in the bedrooms and lounge are nothing special, no lining, just cheap curtains.

How much heat loss would fully lined curtains prevent going out the windows or would we never save the cost of new lined curtains costing in the region of £150 - £300?

Also how much heat loss do curtains prevent anyway if there are no drafts from the windows?

Curtains are a barrier between the room and the window; hot and cold air has to work much harder to get through the barrier which results in less heat escaping and less cold entering.
You could try some ready made linings from fleabay just for one set of curtains and see if they make any difference for you.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EasyLine-Ready-Made-Curtain-Linings-/161115559096?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Curtains_Blinds_CurtainFixtures_Accessories_EH&var=&hash=item25833c54b8

lstar337

Thick curtains make a huge difference.

We have large single glazed sash windows which are pretty worn out. I couldn't believe how much difference it made when we added thick curtains to them. We have also added thermal roller blinds now too.

It's a very cost effective way to stop heat escaping your rooms.

Katzen

If you want a cheap solution in the interim then bodge some cheap fleece blankets as liners. I couldnt put a price on savings but it def makes some difference