Save Money: Do Not Replace Old Windows

Looking into your windows, from the garden, is a major element of Garden Design.
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Look into a window & see the back of a TV?  Not in my realm.
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Moving into a ca. 1900 American farmhouse, we were fortunate it retains every original window.
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Apparently Beloved thought our windows would not remain.  Instead, vinyl double glass energy efficient would be installed.  Really?
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Not in my realm.
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Yesterday, voila, found the math allowing me to keep every wavy lined leaded glass pane.  And save on energy costs.  Prior to this new information all I could tell Beloved was Jane Austen could not have written her books, looking thru energy efficient windows.




From an article, here, written by, Keith Haberern Professional Engineer, R.A. Chairman: Collingswood,NJ, Historic District Comm.

♦ U value of a single pane window (that old wood window): 1.10
 ♦ U value of a single pane window combined with a storm window: 0.50
 ♦ U value of an expensive new double pane thermal replacement window: 0.58
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 (remember that the lower the U value the better. You will note that your old wood window combined with a storm window is about 15% more energy efficient than that new replacement window. Those new windows will cost you, not save you money.)
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So I don’t have storm windows, the ads say I can save big bucks and lots of energy by replacing those “old” wood windows with replacement windows- right? My “old” windows have beautiful wood and wavy antique glass but they must be costing me a bundle?
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 ♦ Yearly energy saving between a single pane window and a new double pane thermal replacement window (on one 3’ x 5’ window): 625,922 Btu
 ♦ Annual savings per window if using gas heat at $0.95/therm: $9.65/ year
 ♦ Simple payback if you assume a decent replacement window will cost $400 installed: $400/ $9.65 year = 41 ½ years!!
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 (Not a good investment. You would do better by putting your money in a bank savings account! Also remember that as most thermal replacement windows will have a life span of 15 to 20 years, they will not last long enough to pay themselves off.)


Pic, www.OldHouseWeb.com.
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Another story, from the same link, below.
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When faced with $12,000 for replacing 21 existing windows in his own house, Don Hartley, Utah State Historical Society architect, figured a 77 year payback on the so-called “investment.” Instead he refinished, weather-stripped and added storms for $5000. and took $7000 to the bank. See the full article, WHEN YOUR WINDOWS WANTATTENTION .
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New windows are not meant to be repaired when they die.  Merely replaced.
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And, storm windows don't look like they did when I was a child, they've grown up too.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara