How to Pick the Perfect Windows and Doors for Your Ottawa Home

When you own a home in the nation’s capital, you’re subject to the unique weather conditions of Ottawa. Windows and doors in your house need to be energy-efficient to do a good job. We experience extreme highs and bone-chilling extreme lows in temperature. You want to make sure your windows and doors are keeping the cold air on the right side of the glass all year round. In order to do that, you need to make sure you have energy-efficient windows and doors – particularly windows, since you’re likely to have more of them than you do doors in your house.

The fact is that if your house has energy-efficient windows, you can save anywhere from $27 to $465 per year on your energy bill. So what do you need to look for when shopping at Ottawa windows and doors retailers and manufacturers? Here’s a checklist of the things you should be keeping an eye on:

  • A window’s U-factor is a numerical value that ranges from 0.20 to 1.20. It’s attributed to energy-efficient windows and doors, and ranks their ability to keep heat in. The lower the number, the better the window is at retaining your home’s heat.
  • The solar heat gain coefficient is another numerical value, this time ranging from 0 to 1. The lower the number is, the better your windows are at blocking unwanted heat from the sun. This is perfect in our hot Ottawa summers – balancing the low heat transfer of a good U-factor in the winter with a low solar heat gain coefficient ensures good climate control all year round.
  • Like the solar heat gain coefficient, your visible transmittance rating also ranges from 0 to 1. This number indicates how much light your energy-efficient windows are letting into your home. The higher the number, the more light is being let into your household.

Once you’ve got those numbers out of the way, make sure you’ve picked a trustworthy and experienced brand with a solid reputation. ClimaGuard glass, for example, is an incredibly reliable brand when it comes to keeping the heat in when you live in a very cold climate.

It’s not all aesthetics when it comes to windows and doors in Ottawa. It seems often that we forget the primary functions of these components in our homes, and only think about how they look. But their composition, their craftsmanship, and their reliability are the most important parts of their function. And looking back, they’re the things that will make you grateful you made the purchase to begin with.