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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Anyone have solar screens or replace windows?
We are currently house hunting and I saw a house today that I might be interested in but I'm concerned about energy costs. The owners have updated with spray on radiant barrier and brought in extra spray in insulation in the attic but I'm concerned about the windows. The house was built in 1994 so it has older windows.
Has anyone with non-energy efficient windows decide to do solar screens or replace the windows?
I'm curious on average costs of both. I'm sure it would be much more energy efficient to change the windows but I'm not sure on spending that much on changing them out.
Also if anyone has had either done before, please recommend the company who did yours, if you were happy with them.
Thanks!
Re: Anyone have solar screens or replace windows?
We have needed to get 1 windosw replaced for awhile, so I have saved a few posts to go back to. We haven't done anytihng, yet, but hopefully it will help you!
http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/45079488/ShowThread.aspx#45079488
http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/7165503.aspx
We haven't replaced yet, but we have an older house with the original windows and radiant barrier/well insulated attic and my electric bill isn't outrageous. (our house was build in 88 and is two story, so we have 2 a/c's going in this heat)
So... I wouldn't let it be a deal breaker. We do plan to replace them, but it will likely be another year or so.
ETA: my neighbors just had theirs done and are super happy with them, I'll ask who they used and post.
Our house was built in 1991. It still has all of the original windows and insulation. They are on our list to upgrade, but haven't yet. We did have two new A/C condensers put in prior to closing. We do have solar screens on all of the windows across the back of the house.
The house had all of the solar screens except for one. We have a half circle window in the family room that did not have a screen. The afternoon sun would shine straight through to the thermostat and the floor in the center of the room. We took a temp reading off the window and it was 115 degrees. After we put a 90% solar screen on it, the reading was 85. It cost about $75 to have a custom screen built, but I know most companies give breaks for the more windows you cover. I had a hard time finding a company that would just make me a single screen. I used Apollo Solar Screens and they were great to work with.
We just replaced our original 1968 windows at the end of June. When we first moved in a year ago March we realized how bad the sun would hit the back of our house and we weren't ready to replace the windows yet so we got solar screens for the back of the house. They didn't cost all that much ~$300 maybe. Not sure how much of an energy savings they made b/c we had nothing to compare it to. We are hoping that the new windows will make a difference but the electric bill for June and for July were exactly the same. July has been so incredibly hot though so I am guessing that without the new windows the bill would have been higher.
We went with a company called Vizion for the windows. It is a family owned company that we found after doing research on Angie's List. We were happy with them and the price was very competitive.
Would you mind telling me the avg you paid per window? Thanks!
Would you mind telling me the avg you paid per window? Thanks!
I have enormous windows. Only the bathroom windows are smaller than 6 feet. They were roughly $500 each. They're vanguard windows if you want to google the specs.
You want to buy the best frames you can. Window glass (the low e, energy star kind) is only made by two companies - ppg and someone else I forget. The window companies are are selling you on their frames and their install - be sure to check out both before investing the money. gl
Thanks! I'm kind of clueless on all this.
I just got copies of that home's past 3 energy bills. It was actually not bad, so I'm thinking that solar screens might work until we can replace windows. However, I'd probably get some window estimates before actually buying the house.
About $350 I think.
we recently put solar screens on our house. we did the windows on the front and back because our house faces directly west.
while it hasn't made a massive change in our bedroom (eastern wall), it has helped a lot in other parts of the house.
we used lone star solar screens and we were very happy with them. we did a lot of windows and did the "grids" on the front of the house and it wasn't very expensive at all.