Window Inserts

[easye]

Well. Having it explained to me earlier, adding panels to my system is not an option. At least now. I had ear marked $1500 for that so I decided to spend the $1500 on something to hopefully reduce energy use. What I came up with was some more insulation on my cathedral ceilings and Window Inserts. Anyone have any experience with window inserts. Basically, its an air tight single pane window that goes inside in your window frame. The ones I ordered are a metal frame and foam padded insulation around the frame to make it air tight. Idea is it creates a 1"ish air space between the window and the insert. The air and insert combined should double my R value to about a 3. In most houses the windows have the lowest R value by far and are the culprits of between 25% and 40% of all heat loss so I read in several places. (not just the manufacturer LOL). ANyone have any thoughts? Anyways I'm not sure how I will be able to evaluate them on a monetary basis. I'll try some heat gun temps etc when it gets hot or if I get a cold snap. As with my failed mister experiment, I'm willing to try something that seems like it should work and report as many results as possible. I won't link to the company as I know it will be blocked, but there are several out there.

[inetdog]

Keep us advised. I don't know of any members with special qualifications in that area, but some may chime in.

[Brian53713]

Insulated cellular honeycomb blinds, light blocking or light passing are the answer to the world's problems.

[easye]

light passing honeycomb blinds offer little or no improvement over the wood blinds I already have and offer fewer lighting options.

[J.P.M.]

Fenestration can be a complicated issue. First line of defense on a window is to make sure its frame is tight to the wall and well sealed. Then, that the glazing is tight to the frame, with moveable lites weatherstripped. Getting rid of air in/exfiltration usually contributes as much to reducing heat loss form a window as increasing the R value by adding a lite of glazing. It's also usually a lot less $$$.

Some issues:

In a sunny, cold climate, night shades will reduce heat loss more than another lite of glazing, sometimes by a factor of 2-3 times. That will also have an added advantage over adding a glazing lite for mostly southerly windows in that more solar radiation will be transmitted through fewer lites of glazing.

CA and other states require heat reflective treatment for glazing that may, for southerly windows be a net loser due to significant reductions in solar transmission characteristics. That however is not usually a problem for windows not facing mostly south.

Moveable/adjustable shades/slats, etc. between lites of dual/multi pane windows help some to reduce solar gain, but provide little measureable increase in insulating value over well designed regular designs. . Also, such schemes usually mean that because the space between glazings cannot be sealed as tightly as necessary, moisture laden air tends to get between the glazings sooner and fog things up. The price of such windows usually makes them non cost effective. Service life may be shorter as well as non accessable mechanisms fail.

[Wy_White_Wolf]

Window Inserts - Fancy name for storm windows that have been used for decades in order to scam people into spending money on something they think is the latest technology. I'd put any company that uses the term in the same category as the ones selling solar clothes dryers. You get a rope and a few clothes pins.

WWW

[easye]

Always somebody helpful around here. Anyways. I got the inserts. Put one on each window and waited an hour. Time was 2:30PM. Weather sunny. Outside temp 66. Inside temp 73. North side the insert was 4 degrees warmer than the non insert window. south side the insert was 6 degrees cooler. East and West insert was 3 degrees warmer. In the morning, the temp outside was 37 degrees. The windows on the east and west side were 7 and 8 degrees warmer respectively with the insert vs without.

[peakbagger]

I use cellular blinds with side tracks. There is convective flow that sets in any insulated cavity and cold air can drain out of via the sides and bottom. The side seals really cut down on the drafts. I open and close them whenever the sun is out in the winter to take advantage of solar heating. One thing I learned with cellular blinds is the stock string arrangement has limited life span, once the strings break, replacing them is in theory possible but quite difficult. I switch to heavy duty head piece that uses an endless loop of cord that spins a shaft. The strings roll up on the shaft but there is far less abrasion on them. Definitely worth the extra bucks as I have already had to trash a couple of the ones with the standard strings

[Brian53713]

I put the basic ones in almost every window in the house 6 years ago. some of them melted because of the Heat . Big box in the area replace them because of lifetime warranty .major shade company also locally-owned. The free Replacements all seem more heavy duty. Then they didn't carry the corded anymore and recently replaced it with a cordless. Then on the last one let me pay the upgrade for the cordless. On the one corded one that went bad I replaced the cord with drapes cord. That I got from a seamstress shade lady. On other fancy pleated top down inherited blinds, I replaced with fishing braided Dacron line .Then with the proper shade cord. Family tradition of repairing fancy things and keeping them working. Now you can't even get a corded blind in most stores. They're all cordless and convenient. As per the previous post they are magic summer and winter for saving energy, you also need an extra Shade over them summer and winter for saving energy.