An incredible publicity stunt. The real truth about plastic windows was discovered and revealed

Recommendation points

• Plastic windows completely protect the living space from cold penetration
• The plastic window system completely excludes the penetration of street noise into the living space
• Inside the glass unit in the space between the glasses – vacuum
• Plastic windows are completely sealed
• The wider the glass unit, the better the plastic window

Unfair advertising does not help, but is misleading, destroying the true idea and having the opposite effect. The most common statements of various manufacturers of plastic window systems that can be attributed to common advertising gimmicks:

Plastic windows completely protect the living space from cold penetration

In fact, any window keeps heat in the house much worse than any wall. That is, an ideal living space that retains heat well should have no windows and doors at all. It is the windows and doors that are the sources of the loss of eighty percent of the heat in the house, apartment, cottage. Another thing is that modern plastic window systems are twice as efficient as their old wooden counterparts. Many consumers consider a significant disadvantage of plastic window systems that condensation often forms on the surface of insulating glass units. This is a natural physical process, when household appliances are used in the kitchen or in the bathroom for several hours, then condensation falls on windows and walls. This is due to the fact that modern designs of plastic windows are equipped with a high-quality sealing system for opening sashes and glass units. The entire structure in a closed state completely eliminates the rapid air exchange of the living space, which contributes to the accumulation of air with high humidity in the room. Therefore, to reduce air humidity and prevent condensation from forming, it is necessary to ventilate the living space by opening the sash of the plastic window in this mode for several minutes every day..

The plastic window system completely excludes the penetration of street noise into the living space

This is far from the case. It is impossible to exclude any street noise, because there are low-frequency noises – a powerful hum of traffic, the work of construction tools or the clatter of a tram, which are seriously attenuated by good plastic windows with high-quality double-glazed windows, but will be distinguishable and audible. The noise will not disappear altogether, but it will significantly decrease. When there is a busy highway under the windows itself, it makes sense to put plastic windows, completing them with double-glazed windows with glass of various thicknesses. This procedure will give an additional effect and help to eliminate the resonance phenomenon. The larger the glass, the more resonance it is exposed to. Therefore, as soon as the window sash opens, the entire noise isolation system is immediately disrupted. Thus, if you take seriously the high-quality elimination of extraneous noise, then it is worth installing an air conditioner.

Inside the glass unit in the space between the glasses – vacuum

“Vacuum insulating glass” is an incorrect or imprecise definition. It is known from a school physics textbook that a vacuum is a very large, simply enormous pressure. Therefore, if a vacuum appeared between the glasses, the atmospheric pressure would crush and break the glasses. In the process of manufacturing a glass unit, a small pressure is really created between the glasses, which presses the glass more tightly. But this is not a vacuum in the broad sense of the word.

Plastic windows are completely sealed

All the tightness of the plastic window system is its unique ability to completely eliminate drafts. The famous publicity stunt, when an aquarium is made of plastic windows, in which goldfish swim, immediately strikes down inexperienced consumers. Of course, the organizers of this show will not talk about the use of special waterproof hermetic means to create this aquarium..

The wider the glass unit, the better the plastic window

It’s not like that at all. This myth was invented by newspapermen in the nineties of the last century, as a comparison with the construction of wooden windows. There is a GOST “Window blocks for mass housing construction” from 1966, which prescribes certain size standards for wooden windows installed in buildings and structures. In fact, a plastic window system cannot be compared to a wooden window. What is the difference between a wooden type window of previous years and a plastic glass unit? A modern plastic window successfully limits convective heat transfer. While the wooden window is going through this process in full swing.

In order to properly understand this process, you need to know what heat exchange is and what types of heat exchanges exist..

There are several types or mechanisms by which objects with different surface temperatures exchange heat. Warm or hot objects give off heat to cold objects. It does this by “radiation, convection or heat conduction of the medium.” The simplest example of heat exchange by radiation is solar radiation. Conduction is when you can burn your hand on the metal handle of a hot pan. “Convective heat transfer” is the movement or transfer of heat with the help of air, when warm air rises up and cold air falls down. Using a window as an example, this process may look like this: the air, warming up, rises up along the inner surface of the glass inside the living space, and its place is taken by cold air coming from the street. The air circulation formed between the glass windows transfers heat to the outside, and cold to the living space. This type of heat exchange is accompanied by the largest heat losses in a house, apartment or cottage..

In order to limit this process, minimizing it, the distance between the glasses is reduced. Thus, there is an optimal value of the distance between the glasses, an increase in which significantly worsens the thermal characteristics of the glass unit..

For central Russia, a plastic window equipped with a double-glazed window is considered optimal. In order to obtain higher heat-saving properties, a glass unit is equipped with one energy-saving glass, which has the ability to reflect heat radiation into the living space..