How to choose glass for windows

How to choose a glass for windows. Nowadays in the market, we dispose fundamentally of three kinds of glass for windows. On one side we have simple glazing, which consist of just one pane. We have isolating grazings, that are formed by two or three panes, and lastly we have radiation isolating glasses.

The choice of one or the other will depend on the needs and conditions of each case. The mos employed glass for windows in the majority of our buildings and households is that which is composed by various panes separated by an air chamber, which helps the window have more thermal isolation. In fact, a cristal window of 4 + 6 + 4 has a heat coeficient transmission of a30% less than a simple glass of 6 mm, however it costs about 40% more, without inluding the carpintery costs. In any case, the use of a double glass with an air chamber compared to a simple glass supposes a saving in determined climates of approximately 24 kWh día.

The double or triple glasses, can incorporate in the air chamber gasses like argon, that is inert, colorless and odorless. This type of glass, of a density different than that of the air, improves the thermal isolation and acoustics in the window, however, it supposes a larger cost on the window.

How to choose glass for windows. Advantages of double or triple glass windows

The radiation resistant glass for windows:

Any crystal, whether it be simple or double, can be formed by different types of glass: colorless glass, colored glass and reflecting glass. Colored glass absorbs primarilly the infrared radiations and is transparent. Reflecting glass is obtained through the application in on of its faces of metal oxides at high temperatures. This kind of glass reduces the solar radiation charge, avoiding its penetration into the building.

In any case, there have to be precautions with this kind of solar radiation isolation, because this kind of material prevents the entry of radiation in summer and in winter.

The solar factor in a crystal is the relation between the total energy that penetrates it and the incoming energy, that is to say it's a value that indicates us the solar radiation insulating that it will have in any glass.

If we start from a colorless pane of 6 mm, with a solar factor of 0.85. From this point we can vary the solar factor, until we reach a glass, for example, a colored double pane reflecting glass, that could have a solar factor of 0.2.

The color can get to be a small invonvenient in the colored glasses with very low solor factors. In any case, as we mentioned above, a crystal for a window with a low solar factor, is only convenient in determined situations, because, for example, in cold or temperate climates, at best it doesn't make sense to install a crystal in the window that might not allow us to gain heat.