Which sash windows?

[Nemesis]

I think most of the daft ones are possibly by someone called Tony.

Me, I don't count the posts.

 

[tony]

not as witty as your normal posts when you put people down

 

[Nemesis]

Well, I thought it may be wasted on you.

And my dad is probably bigger than yours etc.

 

[tony]

Oh your nearly at 2000!
better keep going

 

[Nemesis]

Well past that now!

 

[biffvernon]

Now I don't really want to intrude on this private spat, children, however

some local authority insist on trickle vents.

having trickle vents is required I agree in modern windows

you're both wrong on the point you agree on.

The Building Regulations make a legal requirement of adequate ventilation but do not legislate on how this is achieved. Trickle vents in windows is one of various methods suggested in the Guidance in the Approved Documents. Local Authorities do not have the authority to insist on trickle vents. (Of course there may be individual Building Control Officers who do not know this but that is because they have not kept up with their own professional training.)

 

[Nemesis]

Well, how else is adequate ventilation usually achieved?

I spotted some really nasty new windows being stuck into a historic building in the middle of Thirsk this week - double glazed and with extra external beading to cover this, and large trickle vents.

Grim.

 

[biffvernon]

Air bricks and passive stacks. It is surprising how many people think you have to have trickle vents. I think there was some confusion created last year when the dclg issued some document and then withdrew it when the omission was pointed out, but I forget the details.

ThatBereco design, at 56mm wide is a particularly gross example of how not do glazing bars.

 

[Nemesis]

Yes, my mother had to have an air brick installed (connected with gas fire regs). It causes so much draught she has blocked it up.

Not pretty either.

Passive stacks? Mine just stand there...

 

[biffvernon]

That's the best sort. The others are sometimes parts of MHRV systems.

 

[Nemesis]

OK - I'll ask - what are those?

I'm sure I won't want them though...

 

[biffvernon]

Mechanical Heat Recovery and Ventilation

You're right, you won't want one. You have pipes that suck the air out of your room and push it outside but not before it has passed through a heat exchanger which recovers the heat which it delivers to the incoming fresh air.

A good theory but argueably all a bit complicated for the average domestic situation and dependant on electric fans. Essential for factories, offices, public buildings and the like. The Strawbridges of It's Not Easy Going Green fame, had fun installing one.

They got theirs from
UBBINK, which has quite an informative website.

 

[Nemesis]

Fame? Infamy. (I tried wrapping my head in a scarf though, to see if it helped me look ecologically sound. It didn't.)

Yes I remember it - not too convinced (as with much of what they did...).

So - the inexpensive answer is - have a hole in the wall to allow in draughts, or have vents in the windows to allow in draughts.

That's after the regs have made you seal everything up tightly against the outside world getting in of course.

 

[Nemesis]

PS - it may not be easy being green but by golly it looks as though they are determined to make it lucrative... how much for a course???

I'm afraid the biowhatsit one is not avialable to those of us without the contents of our own chip pan to trek there.

I see though that the skin care and household cleaner course is a spot cheaper. Maybe it's not nibbles from Fortnums for that one. ( I hate that word - it's so - well, Abigail's Party really.)

I think I'll keep my overdraft down and not bother.

 

[ljn]

biffvernon

It has excellent sound-proofing and heat retension properties.

Unless you have a very different understanding of 'excellent', I don't believe you. What's its U-Value and acoustic attenuation?

I live on a main high street in London with 6 bus routs going past my windows in both directions. Add police and ambulance sirens and yove got lot of noize. Opening and closing the new windows is like putting fingers in and out of your ears. Not sure what vales that corrisponds to, but it enables me to, sleep and relax etc. That's my understanding of excellent.

Laminated glass is used in recording studios. The thicker the sheets of glass the more sound it stops. The sylicon between the sheets of glass further dampens the transmission of sound.

U-values wasn't as high on my agenda, they meet BS.

 

[biffvernon]

Good to hear that you are happy with them but my first point was that laminating TWO sheets of Pilk K will not be much better than one sheet of K and one of ordinary float. The low-e coat needs to be on an outside-facing glass/air boundary. The laminated glass will indeed be more sound proof than a single sheet of glass but not nearly as good as double glazing using a combination of a single sheet and a laminated layer. The gap between should be as large as possible.

There's no way that the window described has a U-value of 2 or lower, as required by Part L of the Building Regs.