Single glazed windows

Thanetia

Already said, but really thick curtains will do a lot to help. Keeping ventilation good will help to cut condensation.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I lived in a Victorian conversion with old wooden single glazed sash windows. No problem with condensation; possibly because they were so rickety and draughty there was always good ventilation!

Condensation may depend on your style of living as a household; such as having the heating on full whack with the windows closed all the time.

nkkingston

Grew up with single glazed and no condensation problems, like Vile Jelly, because it was always nice and draughty! Good curtains are a must, ideally of a length where you can tuck them around the window sill in winter to keep those same draughts from sneaking out. These days, to be honest, I'd be willing to live with it for a bit but it'd be the first thing I was saving up to replace with in-keeping double glazing. There's just no need to heat the whole world when you don't have to.

Slinky

Thanks all. I did think of all the ice on the inside of our windows after I'd written my post. My God it was grim. Winters were colder then than now also. We had no heating at all upstairs in our house apart from a 1 bar electric fire in the bathroom. Downstairs was limited to a small oil filled radiator in the hall 'to heat upstairs' - which it most certainly had no noticeable effect on, a single bar fire in the kitchen and a convector heater in the sitting room. It was SOOOOO cold.

bouicca21

If the house suffers from condensation then double glazing may make it worse. Personally I'd live with the single glazing and find out what the problems were then consider good quality wood dg replacements with trickle vents if necessary.

t0rt0ise

I live in a house with solid walls and sash windows. Living with single glazed windows we found the winters very cold. Now we've got secondary glazing it's brilliant. Warm and almost sound proofed from noise outside.

Slinky

Fortunately noise wouldn't be an issue with the property we're looking at. The issue really is the number and complexity of the windows. 4 bedrooms which are all dual aspect, two of which are on the front of the house and have box bays with glass on 3 sides making up 7 casement windows, each with 6 panes of glass, plus another window each with 3 casements with 6 panes.

alumende27

I bought a property last year that has a large number of single glazed leaded windows, a reasonable number of which need repair. I would not consider replacing them with anything other than like for like. The one window that needed total replacement, the carpenter was able to keep the existing leaded panes.

My advice would be to give it one winter to see how it copes before making any costly decisions about replacement. I get almost no condensation, except in the bedroom the morning after a frosty night.

As others have noted, adequate ventilation is key to a lack of condensation. Make sure the kitchen and bathroom have good extractor fans.

It takes more heating, obviously, than with double glazed windows, but I didn't find the increase in heating costs that onerous from the previous property that had recent(ish) uPVC windows all round.

What is the heating system in the house, do all rooms have adequately sized radiators and what capacity is the boiler. It should be reasonably easy to determine if it is correctly sized for the house.

There are lots of alternatives for secondary glazing. One my parents have used in their property was from secondary glazing dot com. They appear to be good quality and they said they reduced both noise and increased insulation but I have not used them myself.

Anyway, to the original point, I was also a bit concerned about buying a house with so many leaded single glazed windows, but made it through the winter without issue.