I think so. Dunno if there’s air or vacuum between the panes of my newer windows, but on cold days the inside feels slightly cool. Today it’s about freezing out, and the inside feels room temp.
Actually, there might be some other kind of gas in there? I checked the manufacturer’s website, but i bought these 20 years ago and the technology has clearly changed. (And they don’t say what’s between the panes.)
All correct.
I tried the heavy curtains, but are basically a pain. A dusty pain. And we like the sun. Always. Not concerned about people sneaking around and looking in.
We do have a few opening windows and of course doors (5 exterior doors) that will cool this place down REAL fast. Our master bedroom has two outside doors (one to a ‘Juliette’ balcony), the guest room - one. Main level has two. The house is far from palatial, entrance and exits are very important when you live in a high fire danger area. And it’s just the way it is. Helps for moving stuff around too.
As a builder, I’m voting for windows. First of all, the aesthetics will be better–no more condensation or mold to obscure your view. Secondly, your current failed windows are probably less than R1. There are triple pane windows that are R7 plus. Those are not retrofit windows, but modern double-panes would be a huge improvement. A stove or fireplace is awesome but you will definitely not see the energy savings. Plus, you’ll get a 30% tax credit on the windows thanks to the IRA.
Correct, it’s more of an air balancer. The path of least resistance is likely drawing in air through other parts of the house. If those were all perfectly sealed then it may pull more air through the intake, but those are also usually much smaller than the fireplace flue (like a 4" round duct with a very restrictive metal grate versus at a minimum an 8" square flue, though more likely 10" or 12" square).
It’s likely not possible to fish a new double-pipe flue through an existing clay flue liner in a masonry chimney, unless it’s dead straight and way oversized.
Full or partial vacuum? I think insulated glass nowadays is a partial vacuum with argon to replace the rest of the air since it’s less thermally conductive. I would think a vacuum would shatter any reasonably sized piece of glass. Even nowadays sometimes large insulated glass panels (like 5 feet square) may pull together in the middle and touch, leaving what looks like an oil splotch. It should never leave the factory like that but sometimes it’s missed in the final punch-list.
Rumford fireplaces can throw out a lot of heat, but they’re quite shallow and at least as tall as they are wide, if not slightly more. I doubt that’s the case here.
Another advantage to an insert, or even just high-quality professionally-installed doors, is that the damper in most fireplaces have a terrible seal. You probably won’t notice it because warm air from the room usually wants to go up and out. In a fireplace that’s on an exterior wall then you might be more likely to get a cold draft. Either way, since the fireplace won’t be used for the overwhelming majority of the year, that air seal during the “off” times is critical, and inserts are much better for that.
Early double-pane windows, specifically from Pella, have what they call an energy panel. The outer pane of glass is puttied or sealed to the sash like you’d expect, but the inside pane has a thin metal frame and some flip-out tabs so you can remove it to clean in between or replace it. You’d notice if that was the case, but point being that early double glazing may never have been fully sealed to begin with. It’s still better than a single pane.
Yes, I think that’s part of the issue; as well as, as I understand it, something about the angle of the back, though I don’t know what the angle needs to be.
One of the fireplaces in the house I grew up in also had a hot air circulation system built into it. In the sizeable amount of masonry around the fireplace, to each side of the fireplace, there was an air vent just above floor level, and another one maybe about four feet off the ground. The two were connected by an air passage within the masonry, which of course was heated by the stove; they pulled colder air in from nearer the floor, and warmer air came out the upper vents. No fans involved, of course (the fireplace probably dated to the early 1800’s); air movement just caused by the heat.
Yup. Ours is 46000 btu, but just an 8" coaxial flue. I may be very tough to get that through a masonary chimney.
We have already replaced the windows that had the stains. The old ones that remain look fine, they just don’t insulate well.
I just checked the plans given to us by the window company and actually don’t see mention either of the R factor or even whether they are triple-paned. I think the contractor said triple-paned at some point, but it isn’t in the specs. I should ask him.
I am not in the US, so don’t get the tax credit. Our canton in Switzerland offers rebates, but only if you replace all of the windows at once, which was too expensive for us at the time.
I only learned later that we had the option of including renovation costs in our mortgage. Instead we have paid for renovations out of savings (about $60k so far) in bits and pieces as we could afford them. On the positive side, it’s kind of fun to have a series of small projects to savor over time…
Unless you use the fireplace regularly, i would guess you’d get more energy savings by replacing the windows. Modern windows insulate pretty well. Old ones leak tons of heat.
Windows are more typically rated in U value, which is the inverse of R.
"R-value tells us how well a surface resists heat transfer. U-value tells us how quickly or slowly a surface allows heat transfer. Radiative heat from the sun has a much greater effect on windows than it does insulated roofs and walls, so that is taken into account with U-value. As a result, you can expect a window’s U-value to change based on time of year and time of day.
Calculating for R-value and U-value is easy. Dividing 1 by the R-value will give you the U-value:
R-value = 1/U-value
Dividing 1 by the U-value will give you the R-value:
U-value = 1/R-value"
thanks. Actually I just looked at the plans again and found the following:
Ug [W/m2K]: 1,1 (1.0) (the 2 is supposed to be a superscript for square meters but I don’t know how to do that here)
Rw [dB]: 37 (1.0)
I suspect the Rw value in this case is referring to sound insulation as the unit seems to be decibels. But perhaps Ug is what we want?
Which reminds me of a related question. As I mentioned in the OP, we have previously upgraded 75% of our windows. Does that mean that the heat loss should be one-quarter as much as before, or is the relationship non-linear? It is worth highlighting that all the remaining old windows are in the same area on a south-facing wall.
It’s going to be non-linear, just think if you had the best windows but left just one open all winter (or summer). For this reason some upgrades in insulation are not really worth it unless other aspects are also upgraded.