If you’ve been following along as we unravel the mysteries of the universe, one vinyl window, aluminum window and window manufacturing tidbit at a time, then you are well on your way to fuller comprehension and greater knowledge of the window manufacturing world… a useful thing, should you be in the pursuit of this kind of knowledge.  Last month we continued our educational roundhouse kick with window manufacturing terms beginning with the letter d. We covered a lot of different ideas, ending with the term, double glazing. We are going to revisit double glazing this month because it is the first of several important glossary terms dealing with double. It is only fitting to combine them all into one month.

Double glazing is a pretty simple idea with far reaching importance. In general, a double glazed window, also called a double paned window, is a window built of two pieces of glass separated by an air space or a gas filled space. The two pieces of glass are sealed during the creation of the window making an air tight space within the widow. This design is intended to improve the insulating properties of a window. Vinyl windows and aluminum windows are both candidates for double glazing, with higher quality, more thoroughly insulated windows generally being double glazed. The development of double glazing propelled the efficiency and temperature retention of windows and patio doors well beyond what was once possible. The advent of double glazing technology, especially, double glazed, gas filled windows, allowed an entirely new level of energy efficiency within the home and workplace. Because certain gases, like argon (a popular insulating gas used to fill double glazed windows) have properties making them less conducive to the transfer of heat (meaning they insulate better, they are often used to more strictly define the air inside from the air outside). Next time we’ll move on to double-hung windows.