Sunday, August 29, 2010

DIY experiment

Having spent a very frosty night in double-glazed hut, I'm a great fan of this type of window- something that is way underutilized in NZ.

Rather than spend many thousands which I don't have- as my taxes are being spent insulating poor people's houses- I'm going to retrofit my existing wooden framed windows.

I saw a system using acrylic sheet held in place with magnetic strips- looks easy enough to fabricate, but the magnetic strip costs more to buy than the acrylic sheet, so I will use draft exclusion foam and screw the acrylic in place. I'm hoping a small bag of silica gel will keep the internal fogging down.

The project starts next school holidays when I buy a couple of sheets and fit out the bedrooms.

A bonus is the safety angle, as I have a boy who has no idea about the properties of glass (as if any boys do!)

Plan is to have the house retrofitted by next winter, so I will keep you posted when the sun starts to hide again!

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