Triple glazing and acoustic glazing can actually be one in the same thing. Acoustic glazing is a make up of certain panes of glass to stop what ever decibel your trying to stop. You first have to work out the amount of noise you need to stop and then we can come up with an accounting value make up to stop the noise. I have standard make ups for certain areas if you want to contact me I can come up with a viable solution for you !! Regards Anthony

They are a very good idea depending on your house, style, and needs, if not the most attractive solutions. I have however seen windows with recessed and colour matched trickle vents - so maybe you need to speak to your supplier of other suppliers. You haven't mentioned the age of your house - if you are in a period property you must have good ventilation, especially if you are getting double glazing. Although I have experienced newer- build property in desperate need of trickle vents because there is no ventilation! Otherwise you will get condensation and then damp. If you seal up all draughts in your house you will end up living in a sweat box. Also, check your insurance - having a window open, even if locked open a crack, will often invalid insurance. Trickle vents avoid this. Also note that trickle vents can be opened and closed, and also retro-fitted. A friend had trickle vents fitted and it solved their damp issues. Consider your window dressing - if you are hanging blinds they may hide the trickle vents. I have trickle vents in new uPVC windows, and sash windows in other rooms but as I have floor vents and stripped wood floorboards my house is well ventilated so I don't worry too much.

Interesting article Melissa, although I think you need to put some numbers in to provide more facts... Costs for triple glazing are regularly twice the cost of double glazing, but as it becomes more common, costs can be a little as from 20 to 40% more compared to double glazed windows. In the UK, it is generally considered not cold enough (certainly not all year round) to make the savings on heating worth the extra cost. The estimate in annual savings is only £20 - £40, so it would take years (decades even!) to make the heating bill savings pay back. The life of the windows would perhaps be shorter! To give an example, if it cost £5000 to double glaze a house, then triple glazing would be £6000 - £7000 (at 20 - 40% more) so at the lowest cost (£6000) and highest savings of £40/year, it would take 25 years to make the savings back! The insulation improvements in terms of U-values: triple can be as low as 0.5 W/m²k (although typically 0.8 W/m²k ), double typically 1.2 to 1.6 W/m²k and single 5.0 W/m²k. As you pointed out, the frames also need to be insulated (thermally broken) to save energy successfully. Frame profiles with more compartments offer the best insulation. Our Residence Collection R9 uPVC windows for instance have nine compartments to protect against heat loss. Other steps can be taken to improve the energy ratings though... Double glazing can be greatly improved to provide better insulation with the addition of special coatings or layers on the glass. As you pointed out, using Krypton gas instead of Argon between the panes will also help, although this does come at a higher price - our Crittall windows come with Krypton gas between the panes. Adding integral blinds between the glass panes can also help improve U-values and gives a very practical and dust-free blind solution to provide privacy and shade when required. The noise reduction in triple glazing will only be properly effective if the gaps between the glazing or the glass thickness for each pane is different so that sound waves of different wavelengths get blocked. Nearly every triple glazed unit available is uniform in glass thickness and have equidistant space between panels, so noise reduction is not as effective as it could be. Having one of the panels of glass laminated (6.8mm thick) and others standard 4mm or 6mm will help reduce noise considerably and this can be achieved just with double glazing quite effectively - thus the extra cost of triple glazing for noise reduction purposes is probably not worth it. Note also that the building’s envelope system plays a crucial role with acoustic performance, making proper installation critical to ensure any sound proof glazing is effective. Special acoustic glass can be specified in double or triple glazed units, which can be highly effective in noise reduction. Be sure to ask your window installer for options such as acoustic glazing if say you live near a busy or noisy road or perhaps an airport. Saint-Gobain, one of our glass suppliers, produce Stadip Silence which offers beautifully transparent noise control glazing. Hopefully, I didn't put you all off triple glazing, it certainly has its place. With a Passivhaus system, that has properly insulated building materials and can utilise large windows strategically placed to naturally warm a house with solar gain, there is sense in the investment. (Larger windows would need to be better insulated.) Triple glazing however, actually slightly reduces the absorption of heat from the Sun, so it's a weigh off game again of cost versus actual benefits. The British weather may not be sunny enough though to make such housing or viable solar gain practical anyway :-( It's a great talking point though Melissa and hopefully means people will look at all their options before making any window purchases. As always, YES Glazing Solutions (https://www.yesglazing.co.uk) are happy to provide a no-obligation quote for anybody looking to install new windows in their property.

We went through this same decision process with our 6x4m rear extension recently. Eventually we choose a gable with glazed end for several reason. Firstly several friends and comments online made me wonder about the heat and light issues with lanterns. It will also be our main living area when entertaining so noise on a large glass lantern was also a consideration. However worth noting we spoke to several builders and all came back with slightly higher estimates for the gable than the flat roof extension so that might also be a something worth considering (although that did include the glasses end, bifold and skylights). I'm currently researching skylights (that's how I found your post) and were looking at circa £6k for velux and possibly more if we go for frameless bespoke ones. Good luck with your planning.