and that place is the outside. If you live in a sleazy home then the good news is that your fan might just do absolutely nothing but make noise. There may have been no exhaust vent to the outside provided for it.
A good rule to keep in your head is that all the air in your home will be blown outside by the kitchen vent fan each hour, and what has been sucked into your home will then have to be replaced again by heated or cooled air from your furnace or A/C unit.
Let’s pretend that you have seven regular windows and a sliding glass door. That is at least a $10,000 deal from Mr. Honesty and his Skilled Installers. Let’s now use industry averages and predict that you will have one of those windows — or maybe even the sliding glass door — with a seal failure at the ten year mark.
The reality is that the failure will have occurred far sooner and the insulating properties of the dual pane anything will start to decline soon thereafter. But now you have to replace the product. The average replacement cost will be about $1,300.00 (you have to include or average into this cost the possible replacement of the sliding glass door which is maybe $3,500 to $5,500).
If you live in your home and cook and go to the toilet and open and close the front door and even dare to open a window — then you probably can’t save more than about 10% on your energy bill. So you might save $240 a year with dual pane windows and sliding glass door. Over ten years that can be $2,400. The cost of the loan and the loss of the use of that money ($10,000) is probably well over $2,400. And you still have to pay another $1,300 for the window or door that failed during those ten years. So you are out $3,700 to save $2,400. This does not add up.
And this is all for someplace with seasons. If you live in a milder climate then you might save $100 a year on your energy bill and thus lose about $3,000 over ten years by having these dual pane “things” in your home.
Remember, seasons have little to do with the failure of that window.
Was it all worth it? No. Do you have a choice today? No. All new homes have these dual pane windows and “new construction” dual pane windows are usually far worse in quality than good replacement dual pane windows from Milgard or better dual pane windows.
The best windows include those that are fiberglass (not vinyl) outside and real wood inside.
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