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erne60_gw

Is it possible to replace single pane glass with double pane?

erne60
17 years ago

I am remodelling a house that has a contemporary style, and has beautiful fixed pane windows in the living room looking out into the street. The house was built in the mid 70s, and instead of installing pre-built windows from a manufacturer, the builder simply installed the glass panes using the wood studs as the only frame. So it really looks like a wall of glass, almost uninterrupted since there is no frame other than the studs. I love how these windows look.

The problem is that they are single pane, drafty, and altogether energy inefficient. So we would like to replace them. But I would not want to install a window that reduces the glass area, if possible. So I have the following questions for the experts:

1) Can I replace these single pane fixed glass panes (which are not standard sizes) with double pane glass, without having to buy a framed window which will reduce the glass area? How thin can double pane glass be?

2) If not, is there any single pane type of glass I can use that would be considerably more efficient than the glass that was being used 30 years ago? Does low-e single pane make a difference? Does it make sense? Or do I have to pretty much go to double pane in order to gain some efficiency?

3) Alternatively, is there any high quality manufactured window that would have a very unobstrusive frame, and be reasonably priced?

I would really appreciate some feedback, since I need to decide on these relatively soon.

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