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How to Reduce Your Electricity Bill This Winter

Electricity Bill This Winter

How to Reduce Your Electricity Bill This Winter

Posted on in Blog

As we head into the cold weather of June, we notice the importance of the little things. After all, the fun part of winter is all about appreciating these small creature comforts like a warm coffee on a freezing morning or the warmth of your heater at home after a long day out.

But, this all comes at a (high) cost. Between keeping your house warm, the weather and the increased time spent inside, it’s no wonder that one of the biggest expenses Australians face is energy costs. So how do you save on your electricity bill this winter without freezing at home? We have a few ideas.

Keep the Heating Temperatures Lower

Rapidly changing the temperature of an environment from cold to hot or vice versa requires a significant amount of energy, so keeping an electric heater blasting at 25°C is likely to send your energy bill to skyrocket. Energy company advises that families keep the temperature of their thermostat at a consistent level for longer periods between 18°C-20°C, than at higher temperatures.

Heat the Areas You Use Most

If you’re the kind of person that enjoys a good book and transforms into a hermit, you’ll probably benefit from this one. By making sure that you’re only heating the rooms that you’re using is a good way to reduce your consumption of electricity and thereby minimising your costs.

Make Sure Your Home is Well Insulated

Arguably, the most important step of all to reduce your energy bill is to make sure the heat you’re getting is actually staying inside your property. Without appropriate thermal insulation, your home will be letting out a sizeable amount of heat and with it, money from your wallet. Many builders these days are more conscious of insulating the building envelope such as windows, walls and roof of newer properties. For existing homes, the key areas, you should be focused on insulating are your ceiling entrances and windows as these can account for up to 80% of heat loss in winter.

How Can I Keep the Heat in My Home?

Weather-Sealed Entrances

Entranceways are one of the biggest sources of grief when it comes to keeping the heat in your house. Cool draughts can suddenly ruin the experience of everyone in your living room, leaving the heater to tick up the dreaded KWh count. Additionally, gaps between your door and the ground can be parasitic for your home, slowly letting the heat out along with your money. Sealing up these gaps with weatherproof seals will help to keep the heat in and reduce your heating cost considerably this winter.

Double Glazed Windows

Using only a single pane of glass in your windows can have a significant effect on your energy usage. A great way to put a dent in your bill this winter is investing in double glazed windows, which will keep the heat in your home during winter and keep the heat out during summer.  If replacing your window is not an option, you can add secondary glazing that will transform your existing window into a double glazed window. Secondary glazing creates an air gap that will act as a thermal barrier, keeping your home comfortable all year round.

What Can Magnetite Do to Help?

At Magnetite, we offer a range of specialised products, designed to keep your home comfortable all year round and save on energy.

Insulate Entrance Ways

For entrance ways, Magnetite stops heat from leaking out of your property with Sealtite, weatherproofing & acoustic seal which are designed to insulate your property from both, noise and temperature. Sealtite can be customised to seal gaps around doors of all sizes and the perimeters of all windows in your house without affecting their functionality. The Sealtite range includes perimeter window and door seals, door stop seals and bottom seals.

Magnetite offers thermal insulation for most type of doors including entry door, French door and sliding door. When it comes to sliding doors, we can install Magnetite ® retrofit double glazing or Soundtite, secondary aluminium system in front of an existing door. Alternatively, for a hinged door, we can install a secondary door that will open to the opposite side of your existing door – i.e., if the existing door opens outward, our door will open inward.

Double Glaze Existing Windows

Magnetite offers double glazing solution for existing windows to keep your home comfortable all year round without having to replace your windows. The systems are designed to reduce noise and thermally insulate your property in the summer and winter.

By installing Magnetite products, you invest in your home, saving hundreds of dollars on your energy bills, all year round.

If you need any advice on how you can insulate your home or you’re interested in any of Magnetite’s products, get in contact with our Double Glazing experts today.

  1. Conduction
    Heat moving through an object (i.e. heat will travel through an aluminium, or steel frame more easily than through a timber or PVC frame).
  2. Radiant heat
    Heat from the direct sun. It can pass through space until reflected or absorbed.
  3. Convection
    Heat flow resulting from air movement e.g. either 'natural' convection - warm air rises, or 'forced' convection - a breeze by a window, both can result in a draught by a window.
  4. Infiltration
    Air leaks around the frame, around the window sash and through the gaps in the movable window parts.

When evaluating your options to improve the thermal performance of your windows, the following double glazing key performance criteria should be considered:

  • U-Value (Uw) represents heat transfer through a window, irrespective of direct sunlight. The lower a window’s U-Value, the better the insulation performance.
  • Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) measures the solar energy that passes through glazing. The lower the SHGC, the less solar heat is transmitted through a window.
  • Air Infiltration or leakage measures the rate at which air passes through gaps in window joins and seals. The lower the air infiltration, the better a window’s energy performance.

The Window Energy Rating Scheme (WERS) Thermal Performance

Aluminium Frame Windows

Glazing Type Cooling Stars Heating Stars Cool% Heat% Uw SHGC
Single glazed 3mm clear glass* half blue star red starhalf red star 7.4 0.77
Single glazed 3mm clear glass &
4.5mm Magnetite		 blue starblue starhalf blue star red starred starred starred starred starhalf red star 35% 59% 2.9 0.67

Timber Frame Windows

Glazing Type Cooling Stars Heating Stars Cool% Heat% Uw SHGC
Single glazed 3mm clear glass* blue starhalf blue star red starred starred starhalf red star 20% 28% 5.5 0.69
Single glazed 3mm clear glass &
4.5mm Magnetite		 blue starblue starhalf blue star red starred starred starred starred starred star 37% 61% 2.6 0.66
Single glazed 3mm clear glass with
Solartite** and 4.5mm Magnetite		 blue starblue starblue starblue starblue starblue starhalf blue star red starred starred starred starhalf red star 76% 45% 1.8 0.20

 

*WERS standard typical industry window
**Solartite is a range of high performance window film. The window tested above has Solartite’s low-e film.

Magnetite vs Traditional Double Glazing – What the experts says

Winter - the ideal situation is to let in as much of the sun's heat and then trap it inside to maintain a comfortable environment in your home or office. This will also significantly reduce heating costs and saves you money. The ideal window for winter will have a high SHGC to let the sun's heat in and a low U-Value to prevent the heat from escaping. Clear windows without shading films are better suited for winter climates.

Compared with traditional double-glazing, Magnetite’s double-glazing solution can provide better results during winter or for cold climate areas such as Canberra, the Adelaide Hills and Blue Mountains.

Magnetite's clear acrylic window panels allow the direct heat from the sun's rays to enter the building and once inside, Magnetite's superior magnetic seals retain the heat, giving Magnetite an advantage over conventional operating windows.

Glazing Type Cooling Stars Heating Stars Cool% Heat% Uw SHGC AI
Double Glazed 3mm clear glass/12mm air
gap/3mm clear glass IGU (Insulated Glass Unit)*		 blue starblue starhalf blue star red starred starred starred starred starhalf red star 40% 55% 3.0 0.61 5.0
Single glazed 3mm clear glass &
4.5mm Magnetite		 blue starblue starhalf blue star red starred starred starred starred starred star 37% 61% 2.6 0.66 0.5

 

*WERS standard typical industry window

Summer - the ideal situation is to minimize the heat coming in from outside and prevent the cool air inside from escaping through the window. This will make your home more comfortable and reduce your air-conditioning costs. The ideal window for summer, or for a large west-facing window, will have a low SHGC to limit the heat from the sun's direct rays, as well as, a low U-Value to prevent the heat in the air outside from moving through the window and warming the cool conditioned air inside. It is better to have a shading film on the first (outer) glass pane to limit the heat that enters the double glazed unit.

The combination of Magnetite retrofit double glazing and Solartite outperforms the traditional insulated glass unit for hot climate. Magnetite fit over an existing window with reflective film will give better summer heat control than a double-glazed window with supertoned glass.

The Magnetite system stops the conduction and convection of heat better than glass windows giving superior results for summer conditions. Combined with a film or a shading device, Magnetite is the ideal solution for the hot Australian conditions.

Glazing Type Cooling Stars Heating Stars Cool% Heat% Uw SHGC AI
Double Glazed 5mm Supertoned glass/6mm
air gap/5mm clear glass IGU (Insulated Glass Unit)*		 blue starblue starblue starhalf blue star red starred starred starred starhalf red star 54% 425% 3.30 0.461 5.0
Single glazed 3mm glass Solartite**
and 4.5mm Magnetite		 blue starblue starblue starblue starblue starhalf blue star red starred starred starred star 73% 38% 2.4 0.19 0.5

 

*WERS standard typical industry window
**Solartite is a range of high performance window film. The window tested above has Solartite’s low-e film.

Click here to view pdf version of Magnetite WERS test result.

Noise Reduction Technical Data and Results

Proven Results

Noise pollution is one the biggest problems faced in the cities today, particularly in a high-density living. Unwanted noise can be responsible for sleep loss and lack of concentration. This can lead to a deterioration of health through increased stress levels, headaches, high blood pressure and loss of hearing.

Noise penetrates windows through leaky seals or vibrations through the window structure. To reduce noise, a window should minimise air infiltration, hold enough weight to limit vibration and allow a large air cavity. This cavity, or air gap, is the key to secondary glazing.

Expert Advice:

CSIRO Research by John Davy shown an air cavity can effectively enhance sound insulation performance. The larger the air cavity the more noise the window system can reduce. Results show a wide air gap of 100-125mm will improve sound insulation by an average of 7dB(A) more than windows with a narrow gap of 8-13mm.

Window or Glass Door Type Total Glass Thickness (mm) Air Cavity Thickness (mm) Sound Insulation (dB)
Single Glaze 3mm 3 0 23
Single Glaze 6mm 6 0 27
Double Glaze Narrow Gap 9-12 8-13 31
Double Glaze Wide Gap 9-12 100-125 38

 

The human ear is less sensitive to low frequency sound. According to a study released by the CSIRO, the human ear needs a change of 3dB to detect a difference in noise levels and the human ear perceives a change of 10dB as a doubling or halving of the noise level.

If you double the thickness of glass in a window the noise level will decrease by 3dB the least amount possible to make a difference. If the glass is laminated there is no perceived difference in noise reduction.

National Acoustic Laboratory Testing:

Working with the principles of noise transfer, Magnetite® and Soundtite are designed for high performance, which is achieved by combining air tight seals with the ability to maximize an air cavity and the flexibility to vary glazing thickness to suit. Magnetite® is excellent at reducing general noise such as busy roads, commuter trains and noisy neighbours. Whereas, Soundtite works well to combat low frequencies noise such as garbage truck, freight trains or airplane during take-off and landing.

Test Code Material Tested Rw* Improvement
ATF 707 (test window) Aluminium sliding window, 3mm float glass with mohair seals 23 N/A
ATF 709 Test window, 100mm air gap and Magnetite System (4.5mm acrylic panel) 35 52%
ATF 1507 Test window, 100mm air gap and Magnetite System (10.0mm acrylic panel) 39 70%
ATF 817 Test window, 100mm air gap and Soundtite (6.38mm laminated glass) 41 78%

 

*The Weighted Sound Reduction Index (Rw) is a measure for sound insulation performance of a single building element such as windows. The higher the Rw rating, the better the sound insulation.