Whilst the principle of using thermal imaging to identify houses (or
parts thereof) that are leaking increasingly precious energy out into
the world at large is to be praised, its use to sell plastic windows
is perhaps questionable. Looking at the images of my own house,
and indeed those of my neighbours, the shock of glowing thermal
radiation seemingly pouring out is almost enough to make one send
for the salesmen.
However, interleaved amongst these horrors, there are images of
the even numbered houses on the other side of the street. These
present an almost uniformly dark picture of good buildings letting
little out. On realising that the street runs east-west, that my house
faces south and that these' cool' buildings face north, the true
picture emerges. It would appear that the company responsible
took the thermal images on a bright sunny day, which is far from
ideal. In such conditions north facing buildings will appear thermally
cool in their perpetual shade, whilst those like mine are in fact
showing the effects of thermal warming. The brickwork is bathing
in the sunshine and solar gain through the windows is creating
warm rooms in behind, all leading to the glowing report given in the
pictures.
After such a day of sunshine, simply closing the thick curtains to
retain heat is probably far more effective and certainly cheaper than
installing double glazing. In fact if the truth is known, approximately
20% of an average house's energy is lost through single glazing
and upgrading it to double provides a potential 1 0% saving in your
energy bills. But considering the cost of double glazing this makes
for a very long payback period.
A cheaper and much more efficient energy saving measure,
applicable to many but not all houses, is a gable warmer, which can
save 20% off your bills. All being well, I will present one such as a
pioneering example in the next issue.
PATRICK TAYLOR, Conservation Architect
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