Glass windows Replacement cost for Home

Windows provide our homes with light, warmth, and ventilation, but they can also negatively impact a home's energy efficiency. You can reduce energy costs by installing energy-efficient windows in your home. If your budget is tight, energy efficiency improvements to existing windows can also help.

Improving the Energy Efficiency of Existing Windows

You can improve the energy efficiency of existing windows by adding storm windows, caulking and weatherstripping, and using window treatments or coverings.

Adding storm windows can reduce air leakage and improve comfort. Caulking and weatherstripping can reduce air leakage around windows. Use caulk for stationary cracks, gaps, or joints less than one-quarter-inch wide, and weatherstripping for building components that move, such as doors and operable windows. Window treatments or coverings can reduce heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. Most window treatments, however, aren't effective at reducing air leakage or infiltration.

Selecting New Energy-Efficient Windows

If your home has very old and/or inefficient windows, it might be more cost-effective to replace them than to try to improve their energy efficiency. New, energy-efficient windows eventually pay for themselves through lower heating and cooling costs, and sometimes even lighting costs.

When properly selected and installed, energy-efficient windows can help minimize your heating, cooling, and lighting costs. Improving window performance in your home involves design, selection, and installation.

Design

Before selecting new windows for your home, determine what types of windows will work best and where to improve your home's energy efficiency. It's a good idea to understand the energy performance ratings of windows so you’ll know what energy performance ratings you need for your windows based on your climate and the home's design.

For labeling energy-efficient windows, ENERGY STAR® has established minimum energy performance rating criteria by climate. However, these criteria don't account for a home's design, such as window orientation.

Windows are an important element in passive solar home design, which uses solar energy at the site to provide heating, cooling, and lighting for a house. Passive solar design strategies vary by building location and regional climate, but the basic window guidelines remain the same—select, orient, and size glass to maximize solar heat gain in winter and minimize it in summer.

In heating-dominated climates, major glazing areas should generally face south to collect solar heat during the winter when the sun is low in the sky. In the summer, when the sun is high overhead, overhangs or other shading devices prevent excessive heat gain.

To be effective, south-facing windows should have a solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of greater than 0.6 to maximize solar heat gain during the winter, a U-factor of 0.35 or less to reduce conductive heat transfer, and a high visible transmittance (VT) for good visible light transfer. See Energy Performance Ratings to learn more about these ratings.

Windows on east-, west-, and north-facing walls should be minimized while still allowing for adequate daylight. It is difficult to control heat and light through east- and west-facing windows when the sun is low in the sky, and these windows should have a low SHGC and/or be shaded. North-facing windows collect little solar heat, so they are used only for lighting. Low-emissivity (low-e) window glazing can help control solar heat gain and loss in heating climates.

In cooling climates, particularly effective strategies include preferential use of north-facing windows and generously shaded south-facing windows. Windows with low SHGCs are more effective at reducing cooling loads.