How to keep drafts and cold outside

Properly sealed windows save money and help protect the environment

Have you ever exper­i­enced the wind whist­ling through joints and cracks around your win­dows? Then you’ll know it’s not only unpleas­ant but also causes heat­ing costs to rise sig­ni­fic­antly. Before the start of the cold sea­son, you should there­fore check all win­dows in your home for tight­ness. Smal­ler leaks can be repaired by your­self without being a qual­i­fied crafts­man. Seal­ing tapes or sil­ic­one foams are avail­able for this pur­pose. But for lar­ger cav­it­ies, for example under the win­dowsill, you should call in a win­dow expert. To ensure a healthy liv­ing envir­on­ment, only very low-emis­­sion seal­ing products should be used. You can recog­nize them by the EMICODE® seal on the label.

Many have already exper­i­enced it: You sit in a heated room and still shiver with cold. Yet unpleas­ant drafts can often be stopped by simple means. This is also good for your wal­let. The non-profit con­sult­ing com­pany co2online has cal­cu­lated that a single-fam­ily home of 110 m² can save more than 900 kWh and 70 euros per year (about 7 euros per win­dow) if the win­dows are sub­sequently sealed. But the res­ult is not only a pleas­ant room cli­mate: also the CO2 foot­print is reduced. With gas heat­ing, this amounts to an aver­age of 230 kg of CO2 per year. If you want to use envir­on­ment­ally friendly seal­ing products that ensure a healthy home, simply look out for the EMICODE cer­ti­fic­a­tion on the pack­aging.

Home own­ers and res­id­ents can veri­fy wheth­er there’s a draft prob­lem by com­par­ing their heat­ing energy con­sump­tion with that of sim­il­ar house­holds. With the help of a tea light or candle, they can eas­ily check where exactly the drafts enter the room. Altern­at­ively, they can take a piece of paper, wedge it between win­dow and frame, and close the win­dow. If the paper is now very dif­fi­cult to pull out, the win­dow is tight.

Here now an over­view of the most com­mon seal­ing meas­ures. Joints and cracks between win­dow frame and sash can be effect­ively closed with self-adhes­ive seal­ing tapes. With a little skill, even a layper­son can do this. How­ever, the tapes will keep your win­dows tight for no more than one winter. Gun-applied sil­ic­one seal­ants, on the oth­er hand, provide a per­fect seal for many years – espe­cially in the area of con­nec­tion joints between wall and win­dow. They also pro­tect against mois­ture.

Old and worn win­dow seals can also be a gate­way for drafts and should there­fore be replaced in good time. Insider tip: Insu­lat­ing films can help you save heat­ing costs. Applied to the inside of the win­dows, they reflect the heat back into the room. Over the years, cav­it­ies often form under the win­dowsills and allow cold air to pen­et­rate the interi­or. Anoth­er cold air cor­ridor are old, unin­su­lated roller shut­ter boxes. The gaps can be filled with insu­la­tion mater­i­als such as seal­ing foam – a job for the spe­cial­ist. If all meas­ures have failed, the old win­dows should be replaced by new energy-sav­ing win­dows. Equally import­ant in winter is reg­u­lar purge vent­il­a­tion. This not only pre­vents mois­ture, but also ensures that the heat loss is kept to a min­im­um.

If you want to enjoy unpol­luted air inside your rooms, use seal­ing products with the EMICODE® seal on the pack­aging. After being tested by inde­pend­ent labor­at­or­ies, these products meet the world’s most strin­gent emis­sion lim­its. Reg­u­lar checks car­ried out by inde­pend­ent experts and test­ing insti­tutes ensure com­pli­ance with the high qual­ity stand­ard. In addi­tion to seal­ing products, there are also many oth­er build­ing mater­i­als that have been awar­ded the EMICODE® qual­ity seal.

Photo: ©fizkes/123rf.com/GEV

What smart money-man­agers have known all along: Tightly sealed win­dows save ready cash. Once a year, by autumn at the latest, you should check wheth­er all glazed areas and the sur­round­ing masonry are tight. Any layper­son can do this with the help of a tea light or candle and by scan­ning the interi­or walls with their hands. How­ever, thermal ima­ging cam­er­as provide much more accur­ate inform­a­tion about the loc­a­tion of thermal bridges.

Do You Have Questions?

If you have any ques­tions on cer­tain top­ics or want to con­tact us for anoth­er reas­on, please con­tact us by phone or email.

Phone: +49 (0)211 843 449 – 01

info@emicode.com

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30 August 2021