Are Replacement Windows A Good Investment

When you move into an older house more than likely it will have older windows.  Your first instinct will probably be to install replacement windows at once.  Everyone has heard that old windows will cost you hundreds of extra dollars in heating or cooling costs, but is replacement really the best option?  This is an extra important question when finds are tight and every dollar needs to be spent on vital repairs.

One thing is for sure when you have older windows.  If you decide not to replace them, at some point you will have to repair them.  More likely is that you will have to replace them fairly regularly until replacing them becomes inevitable.  If that repair will require replacing or removing the paint, chances are high that the paint will contain lead.  Be sure to be well informed on all the dangers of lead.  Even small amounts of lead dust can cause massive amounts of damage to you and your family, even the family dog.

Even though it doesn’t seem that the old windows are very leaky, or are not really letting in that much air, they still can be.  Old windows can be the biggest gap in your energy efficiency.  Single-pane windows have a terrible R-value and no insulation, meaning a majority of the air in the home will be lost.  If the caulking is worn and old, that can also allow massive amounts of air in and out.  You can make some other efforts to improve the insulation of these old windows.  For example you can install superb weather-stripping, re-caulk all the windows, and shrink-wrap them in plastic during extreme weather.  This can help you minimize the air loss, but it won’t be as good as higher quality windows.  So if energy efficiency is something that’s important to you, replacement windows are definitely in your future.

Most important you need to determine if your savings will offset the cost of replacement windows.  Sit down with a pen and paper and start adding.  Figure out your current annual expenditures in heating and cooling.  Now you need to figure out the cost of all your replacement windows.  Add up how many windows you need and the cost of each.  Let’s assume for the sake of these numbers that you will save 30% in energy costs.  How many years will it take for you to get back the money you spent replacing the windows in savings?  If it’s more than about five years then it may not be the right time to replace your old windows.  It’s nearly impossible to make completely accurate analyses for this cost-savings projection, but it does give you a rough estimation of whether it will be a good investment.