How to keep your house cool with modern glazing

We use solar-reflective glazing to address the temperature problems that arise during the summer. Find out how the right doors, windows and roof lanterns can keep your home from overheating during the warmer months.

The skies have been overcast over the last week or so, but temperatures are sure to rise over the next month. As the summer finally starts to heat up, most of us will be looking for ways to keep our homes feeling cool and comfortable. Forget about investing in energy-intensive air conditioning – the answer to a cool, fresh home is solar-reflective glazing.

Our need for natural sunlight has always been a key motivator when it comes to renovating properties. Investing in big, beautiful windows and glazed doors is the quickest way to bring plenty of light into your interiors. Unfortunately, this increase in brightness can result in higher temperatures, with solar heat being trapped inside the home. If your home has a high proportion of glazing, you may be familiar with the struggles that come with living in a stuffy, warm environment.

Homeowners may try all sorts of temperature-controlling techniques, leaving doors wide open and measuring up for bulky black-out curtains to keep out the sun. However, the right glazed products will efficiently resolve these temperature issues. Innovative features like deep inside-to-outside window sash profiles, ventilation systems and solar-reflective glazing combine to effectively keep the heat out.

Let the sunshine in, keep the heat out

Compared to standard double glazing, we design our products to keep your home feeling comfortable in the summer, but also warm in the winter. The glazing industry measures a door or window’s performance by its solar gains versus heat losses, and both are essential for maintaining a balanced temperature inside your home through the seasons.

During the summer, reducing solar gain and including ventilation to your room are the best ways to combat warmer weather. Heat losses are dependent on the temperature outside, and the window’s ability to keep heat inside. Solar irradiation is also affected by the window’s position to the sun, so it’s always worth assessing how the sunlight moves around your property during the day. 

A solar reflective coating on the glazing works by bouncing solar heat off the glass and away from your house. This type of glass is an ideal option for windows, doors and roof lanterns fitted in south-facing rooms that have high exposure to the sun. It cleverly reduces glare and heat build-up in the room while maintaining a high light transmission. 

Quality glazed doors and windows at Westbury

To ensure you still benefit from the health and wellbeing benefits of natural light, we use Sun Guard coating. It is a neutral glass that lets in a very high level of visible natural light while reflecting 65% of the solar heat, therefore reducing glare and UV inside the room.

Our standard glazing is 28mm thick and is fitted into its rebated unit with double-sided adhesive tape and secured externally using a secret nail system through the Accoya® glass bead. Warm edge spacer bars insulate the edges of a sealed glazed unit, which keep the panes apart and prevent cold bridging. The external perimeter is permanently sealed with an appropriate colour silicone.

By crafting our timber frames and window sashes with deep inside-to-outside profiles, we further improve the thermal performance through the wood components. Years ago, the Scandinavians learned to use a standard frame depth of 115mm to keep their homes warm, and this is a technique that we use at Westbury today. 

All of these design elements combine to result in an exceptional, high-performing glazed door or window. We independently test our products at an accredited centre, and the results speak for themselves. Our windows have a whole product U-Value of 1.4 W/m2K based on double-glazed glass and 1.1W/m2 based on triple-glazed 4mm thick glass, with a centre pane value of 0.6 W/m2K.

Roof lanterns with automatic vents

Roof lanterns are popular with homeowners looking to transform the dark and gloomy areas of their home. They can heighten flat roofs and create expansive views of the sky above. Their ultimate purpose, however, is to allow the maximum amount of sunlight to stream into the room below. 

Just like doors and windows, if you install the wrong kind of glazing the room under the roof lantern can feel hot and uncomfortable in warmer temperatures. All our Westbury timber roof lanterns are double-glazed, with 4-16-4 toughened panes. The glazing is filled with insulating argon gas and sealed with a Low E coating as standard. By upgrading the glazing to a solar reflective glass, the solar heat reflects away, and the glass effectively decreases glare and heat build-up in the room while maintaining a high light transmission. Solar reflective glass coatings also work to keep heat inside the room during winter months.

Ventilation should work alongside the right glazing to keep the room below a roof lantern feeling cool in the summer. Fans can be large and bulky, and air conditioning require a lot of energy to run. Roof vents, however, are highly effective at encouraging cross ventilation in the room by drawing the warmer air up and out without having to open any doors and windows. We fit our roof lanterns with innovative remote-operated vents with thermostatic and rain sensors. The vents open and close automatically depending on the temperature inside the room and the weather outside.   

Over the last 30 years, Westbury has built a reputation for crafting exceptional timber windows, doors and roof lanterns across the UK. Our experts are on hand to discuss what type of doors and windows are best for your home, and how they can define the look and feel of your property. Contact us here. You can also book an appointment to visit one of our showrooms or enjoy a tour of our bespoke joinery workshop.