Monday 18 August 2008

The great bubble-glazing experiment

A mud brick house is great, but a mud brick house with lots of very thin windows is a PAIN to try and keep warm. We're gradually updating all the curtains to sunout (the most insulating ones we could find), I've made draft-stoppers for all the doors, and we've curtained off the end of the house we don't really use so we're only heating the main living areas.

I feel a bit like I'm living in a cave in winter as I try and keep the curtains closed when it's not sunny to keep the warmth in. It's particularly depressing in my office as I feel like I'm working in a dungeon. So I've decided to try a new experiment - bubble-glazing.

I got the idea from the MtBest website - in it's simplest incarnation it just requires bubble wrap and double sided tape. You stick the bubblewrap to the window- bubble side facing//touching the window. This is what I've gone for on my 'test windows' in my office/study. To start with I've just bubble-glazed half of the windows, as I'm interested to feel the difference between the two after a day or so.

This is how it looks.




As you can see, it does 'blur' the view to the outside - however, as I have been keeping the curtains closed the advantage of the bubble-glazing is it lets in a LOT more light, so I feel less like Harry Potter in the cupboard under the stairs! And bsides, I'm supposed to be working in the office, not staring at the view :*)

If this is successful then I'll be getting Jerry to make some wooden batons so we can make a more permanent (and more elegant) frame.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

From the European continent, very pleased to find alternatives to the exorbitant double-glazing. Am eager to start my bubble-glazing experiment, but had some practical questions, for instance, which is more efficient: smaller or larger diameter bubbles? Thanks for your help!
LR

Margo said...

Hi LR,

I'm not sure! I jsut used the regular bubblewrap that is used for packaging. Take a look at mtbest.com - he's done more detailed experiments
Good luck!

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