The Pit Falls of Aluminum Windows in the Northwest

With arctic chills in the air, conserving heat and energy in your home has never been more important. But, this can be a hard task with older windows, which are a major source of heat loss in the winter. Perhaps you're fighting, and losing, this battle with aluminum windows. While aluminum windows were at one time popular, especially in the Northwest for our mostly mild winters, aluminum windows are an energy conservation hindrance for many reasons. Aluminum As A Conductor Conduction is the movement of heat through solid materials. The problem with aluminum as a window frame material is that aluminum is a very poor insulator and therefore, easily conducts heat and cold. For homeowners this means their aluminum windows perform poorly throughout the year; they bring in heat during the summer and colder temperatures in the winter.

Sweaty Windows, Icy Windows Almost every homeowner has experienced a foggy or icy interior window and the frustration that accompanies it. This happens more frequently to aluminum windows in particular because during the winter months the temperature of the glass matches the outside temperature. The reason it is so cool is because the aluminum frame does not insulate the glass but instead conducts the cold from the exterior. When a home's heat kicks in and tries to warm a room, the warmer air immediately goes to the coldest surfaces, which in this case are the aluminum windows. The moisture in the warm air gathers on the windows and either freezes or is warmed to a liquid state and runs down to collect on your sills. Unpleasant and unsightly, an aluminum window that ices and sweats is almost entirely unavoidable. Condensation & Interior Damage When water gathers on your windows due to condensation, it has nowhere to go but down onto your window sills, as mentioned above.

Without diligent upkeep of waterproof seals on the interior areas that enclose your windows, many will find rot and mold within the first few years. As time goes on, homeowners will spend more time and money maintaining their windows sills in an effort to prevent a complete replacement, which is always inevitable. Aluminum Window Alternatives This upcoming year is a great time to invest in new energy efficient windows if you are at all considering an upgrade project in the near future. Right now, homeowners can benefit from the federal government's tax credit for the upgrade and many cities have local utility trusts that are shelling out cash incentives as well. Windows that qualify for federal savings must have a.30 solar heat gain coefficient.

For many Northwest households, the local government requires a.30 U-Value rating or less and must be installed with a second energy saving solution, like interior or exterior insulation. Window options that qualify include lines of vinyl, fiberglass, and wood windows.

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