The window industry has spent billions to promote the replacement of CHB windows.
Although it imposes capital cost, it is energetically efficient. But economically it should be calculated.
In case of historic building situation is a bit complicated. There are a number of companies that can make historically correct windows, and they are of course costly. If you have bought a historic building, their is a great responsibility that goes with that.
Scientific reasons for not changing existing windows.
If we use traditional windows the way they were designed to, they work well. You can find a comprehensive study on this in Historic Scotland web site
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/research/buildings/energy-efficiency/thermal-performance-of-traditional-windows
We can then add the study from Cohen et al. (1991) on "Energy savings and economics of retrofitting single-family buildings" and take your conclusions.
I guess it is about time that we bring this subject on contemporary debate again.
Researchers and "normal" users are valuing windows replacement for the wrong reasons.
Hope this information is useful.
- Badges
- Science topic