UKC

moving to edinburgh and due to distance to travel looking at renting without viewing - not ideal but we're not that fussy and accept the risks.
However, lots of places only seem to have single glazing. Having never lived in a single glazed house - what are the downsides? I guess inc heat bills but how cold can it get? its an end terrace.

In reply to BedRock:

itll be ok if you have decent curtains, thats what kept houses warm in the past.
The other drawback is masses of condensation on the inside if you have the heating on, so youll have to dry the windows / sill often.

In reply to BedRock:

my current house is only single glazed, mid-terrace.
remember this has been an exceptionally mild winter.

REALLY cold is the answer.

The main downside though is that you can make the place nice and toasty with a fire/CH, but then within minutes of it going off you can feel the temperature dropping.

If you have a larger than normal heating budget though you will be fine.

In reply to BedRock:

I've lived in about 4 different flats (in Edinburgh) which all had single glazing. However, there were huge variations in how easy they were to keep warm. The main issue I've come across is not necessarily the single glazing, but the old wooden window frames/sills. In some of the older properties there were quite sizable gaps between the window and sill, making it really draughty. However, this will be difficult to identify without viewing the place.

Our flats would generally cool down to about 12-15 degrees overnight (it being heated up to 18-20 degrees the night before), but once got down to about 9 degrees after we came back from a week's holiday in winter. I've only lived in flats though, so an end-terrace house might be very different.

In reply to BedRock:

You can get "single use" cling-film-like temporary "double glazing" to stick over them which can help. Don't know how well though. I have a couple of single glazed windows in my house which I "double glazed" using perspex and wooden frames (seems to be almost as good as proper double glazing) but I guess in a rented place you can't do that.

Neil

In reply to Brev:

Flats can often be easier to keep warm than houses, because you've got the other flats either side and above and below. Terraced houses similarly vs detached - your neighbours are kind enough to heat both sides for you.

Neil

In reply to BedRock:

Its not just heat you need to think about, single glazing is much worse at keeping city noises out

In reply to BedRock:

Thanks for all your comments - have decided I'd best look at the house

In reply to Neil Williams:


works quite well - I used this in my old flat every winter for years.

In reply to Neil Williams:

In the olden days, everyone used to just use ordinary cling film then heat it with a hairdryer to make it flatter, or just plastic wrappings from old mattresses etc. We also used to put draught excluders everywhere. However, I do remember frost on the insides of windows, huddling in bed with a hat on to keep warm, pulling your clothes under the covers to get dressed before getting out of bed and going down to the pub with half a pint for the whole evening. One winter, everyone's toilets froze and quite a lot of them cracked! And this was in Oxford!!

In reply to BedRock:

Unless they're huge bay windows having single glazing won't be much worse than double glazing. It's the drafty frames and doors, floors and chimneys where much of your heat will go. Thick curtains tucked up on the sill and a bit of effort shutting down drafts will make a big difference.

How cold it'll get depends on how harsh the winter is, how leaky the building is, how powerful the heating is and how deep your pockets are

jk

In reply to BedRock:

Hot water bottles are good! And jumpers!

In reply to BedRock:

I remember my mum scraping frost off the inside of the windows during one particularly cold Winter in the 80s. Brr. You need to ventilate a lot to keep condensation at bay, or keep a squegee to hand for the morning mop up. I used to live next to an old couple with single glazing who had no central heating, they keep the windows open all day, even in freezing weather, to keep the damp at bay - previous generations were made of sterner stuff.