Is triple glazing worth it?

[MrsGlennBulb]

It’s been around for over 20 years, but doesn’t seem to have gone mainstream.

I know it’s heavier than double glazing, obviously wider too.

Have heard tales of distorted viewing if the middle layer of glass isn’t absolutely aligned with the outer layers. Wondering too if it is more delicate; does it offer significant savings on heating; is the soundproofing remarkably better?

TIA.

It's fairly standard in really cold countries/mountains, but the cost/benefit doesn't add up in milder climates, I think.

I live in Sweden, we don’t have it, but new builds do. Good insulation elsewhere is generally less costly and more effective at reducing heat loss. It costs a lot more, that will have prevented it becoming more popular.

Dramatically Dramatically reduces road noise in my experience. We live by a very busy road and traffic noise is muffled to a dull rumble. The difference is phenomenal.

It depends... We had some in one room but moved before we could upgrade more windows! Whether it's acoustically better depends on the gap between the panes and you can get acoustic double glazing which does a good job.

The same for thermal, adding a third pane doesn't make it a third better again and the higher cost isn't really worth it.

At our most recent house purchase we didn't bother and just upgraded the windows to double glazing.

I have it in the bedrooms as I’m right by a train line. It massively reduces noise compared to the living room (where I have normal double glazing).

It’s not attractive, though and means there is no windowsill in those rooms.

My living room is generally several degrees colder than the rest of the house in winter so I assume it’s preventing heat loss too.

We had it installed throughout our previous house and really liked it.

Had several quotes with Everest (who provided TG as standard and had previously installed the windows now being replaced) being the most expensive down to smaller companies who could not offer TG but instead told horror stories of how frames would drop, hinges buckle under the increased weight etc etc.

Went with a (slightly) cheaper company than Everest but had TG and it was excellent with none of the horror stories coming true.
They were definitely warmer with nil condensation forming on even the coldest night's and noise was also reduced. Cost for TG was only something like 15% more so it was a win win and we were very happy with the product.
Stayed in that house 10yrs after having them fitted so we know they were good long term.
The company we went with said that few people ever asked for it as they wanted the absolute cheapest quote possible.

I have it. Wasn't a lot more then double

Keeps house warmer in winter and keeps noise out

Tough one I would say. If you have small windows and low noise then probably not. Large windows and a requirement for noise reduction then probably yes.

These days I think it is mandatory to have trickle vents installed in windows. These can be problematic, because you get your fantastic insulating and noise reducing triple glazing, only to find that noise and heat leak is caused by the trickle vents.

So if I was looking for a triple glazed solution then I would pay careful attention to what the vents do in terms of noise reduction when they are closed and also what the heat leak through the vents is as well.

Trickle vents are good, but there are certain circumstances where you would probably want to close them off all the time and get your ventilation via other means - for example if the front of your house is on a busy road you might want to make all the ventilation occur from the back.

Actually web search seems to indicate special double glazed with two variable thicknesses can be as good or better at sound insulation than triple glazed.

@GasPanic gives excellent advice. If trickle vents are mandatory then don't bother with triple glazing.

We have triple glazing in our large kitchen bifold. The room is super warm but faces the back so hard to say if it reduces the noise. It was £300 more on a £3k spend so we went for it.

At the front we had new double glazing put in last year and trickle vents were mandatory from the council. We can hear conversations of people walking past through the trickle vent! I hate the damn things.

We had triple glazing in the bedrooms for traffic noise - it was on offer and cost no more than the rest of the windows so I kind of wished we had done it for the whole house. The glass is heavier which has caused some minor problems as the whole window opens, but we just get them re-adjusted on the guarantee.

We didn't have trickle vents because we were replacing windows without them, or something .. 🤔

We have it, installed by builders as it's an eco home. Our bills are pretty low

It's been worth it for us. We live on a busy road and it really reduces the traffic noise.

I have it, am in London it helps with the noise plus I hardly ever need my heating on.