Single glazed Victorian windows

[Dorset6]

We have moved to a lovely Victorian house with two big original bay windows at the front. Obviously they're really bad at retaining the heat but I hate the thought of replacing them with upvc. Has anyone been in a similar situation and found a solution?

Secondary glazing?

We have original windows in our home - stained glass and leaded glass
the previous owners installed secondary glazing

I replaced my Victorian sashes with wood effect upvc sashes

I know it's a terrible
Thing to do but they look great. We have had many neighbours ask for the number.

They really do retain the heat and are low maintenance.

I bloody love them and don't regret at all

They were expensive tho.

You could go for wooden double glazing over uPVC? Not bay windows, but in our house the previous owners had original stained glass put into new wooden double glazing frames

Not all double glazing is upvc

A cheaper option (and better for the house for air circulation/ventilation) could be Roman blinds doubled up with curtains. We recently broke a blind on a large single glazed sash and the difference it makes is huge - sodding freezing there now. Being the wonderful housewife that I am,I made a new blind.....which is too short

If it is at the front of the house, Victorian and Upvc should never meet.

You can get double glazed glass in the original wooden sash windows. It's also really important to get them properly draft proofed.
Makes a huge difference!

There are a few options. You can get new wooden double glazed windows or you can get secondary glazing made which leaves the original in place. There is also a system called magneglaze which uses magnetic tape on the windows to attach removable Perspex sheets. I think they are made to size and you fit them yourself but there are other companies that will do a measure and fit service. They are popular with owners of listed buildings because you don’t normally need listed building consent.

After years of research we’ve just had our original sash windows restored at the front with slim double glazing. They look great.
We previously had an extortionate quote from a joiner to replace the whole frames with new box frames and double glazing. We also had a quote for upvc sash which looked very authentic but they would have had to remove inner architrave around the windows inside so we didn’t want that.
The company that did the work restored any rotten bits of wood, replaced all the lead weights, put in the slim double glazing and primed the frames with paint. We had to employ a painter to finish painting. Whilst they do look good, I’m not convinced that any more heat is retained tbh and it’s not quieter disappointingly. My husband does think there’s an improvement in heat retention! My gut feeling is that either of the other 2 options might have been better heat retention wise however we still have the original windows!!

Watching as we are in the same situation…

I have Victorian sash and have secondary glazing inside (two panes meeting in the middle) - as long as the middle bar of the sash and glazing match I don’t think it looks bad. It’s also good for noise.

Or there is sash double glazing but that’s more expensive.

I have secondary double glazing. Please don't even think of installing plastic windows in a Victorian house!

We had all of ours replaced with double-glazed wooden sashes when we moved in. They’re fantastic. Don’t do upvc, it would be a travesty!

Invisitherm magnetic secondary glazing is perfect. Had it done in two different houses.

My parents had their massive sash windows (10' tall) replaced new double glazed wooden units - they look similar, but are much better for heat retention. It cost an arm and a leg, as they had to be individually made, but they look lovely (and have a good mechanism on them so they can be opened - it needs to be good given the size).

Nooooooo! Don't take out the original sahes - it's a disaster because you'll never get pvc to fit properly, and modern windows need to be replaced every 10 years or so.

Look up sash window draughtproofing - get a specialist in. They'll take them out of the frames, add brushes to the frame to cut the draught and plane off any warping which makes the windows wobbly. Get someone good and it will transform them, I promise.

Once all the draughts have been dealt with (and also check that the chimney has a balloon in it and cowl to stop that draught), if you still have problem with heat loss, get thermal curtain linings. If that's not good enough, you can always change the glass to modern thermal glass, but usually that's not needed.

Thank you so much everyone for the amazing advice! We have a lot to look into now, starting with invisitherm!

Modern windows need to be replaced every ten years or so 🤣. Some people 😂

Definitely look at secondary glazing it’s really good at reducing noise as well.

I'm doing homemade magnetic double glazing on my windows, no more condensation! You can buy everything you need online easily and get the perspex cut to size and delivered ( measure carefully!).

I’ve fitted perspex magnetic secondary glazing to a few of our windows and am about to buy for two of our large sliding sash windows.

I think The Plastic People are the cheapest at the moment for the Perspex. I’ve bought the magnetic tape from Amazon in the past but I think I might need stronger magnetic tape for the bigger windows (which you can get as a kit from The Plastic People).

The attached photo is from one of our smaller casement windows I’ve already done - it was pretty easy to do as a DIY job.

Thanks to all posting about perspex glazing! I had never heard of it and was about to sign off on secondary glazing that is too expensive really.

Any tips for installation? Do you just remove in summer, and is the tape removable?

We have two babies and very smelly nappies... Just not opening windows isn't an option unfortunately.

*reusable, not removable

We have had some of our Victorian sashes replaced with new wooden double glazed sashes. It is blooming expensive but has made a huge difference.

We didn’t do all of the house due to cost and tbh I regret it - I think the other windows would have paid for themselves in saved fuel by now. And it would have been warmer!