Windows

We live in beautiful Ontario, Canada and own vacation property in Florida.  Windows are an odd thing.  You need windows in your home and yet if you try selling your home you won't recoup the costs of replacement windows.  Buyers expect windows but most don't care about having energy efficient windows.  That little tid bit came directly from our real estate agent.  When I was growing up we had the old double hung wood, single pane windows with wood storm windows.  The storm windows were supposed to make the windows more efficient.  Well they didn't help much but the did help I suppose.  At some point my Mom had aluminum storm windows installed.  They were a bit more efficient but not by much.  There are still many homes in Ontario that have the older wood windows with wood or aluminum storms.  They can be made a bit more efficient using caulk and weatherstripping.

Newer homes tend to have double or triple pane windows.  Our new house has double pane, energy efficient windows.  So far I have not found any air leaks.  Double and triple pane windows save on both heating and cooling costs while eliminating the work of putting up and taking down storm windows.  At the same time they greatly reduce outdoor noise from entering the house.

Our vacation home has what I basically would consider aluminum storm windows or at least that's what they would be considered in Ontario.  These single pane windows do little to buffer outdoor noise or prevent thermal loss/gain.  Our vacation home is in a very quiet resort so dampening noise is not a real issue.  What has become an issue since we bought the house is telemarketers trying to sell us upgraded windows.  I'm not kidding!  The problem is our vacation home is a manufactured home built in October of 2006, erected here in the spring of 2007.  The payback period for replacement windows at this time is not worth the expense especially when we rent the house out when we aren't there so it is either rented or empty.

Garden Gnome
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