[MassHistPres] "Handyman on Call" re replacement windows

[Dennis De Witt]

The following is from Peter Hotton's
"Handyman on Call" Column
The Boston Globe
7/17/08

Dennis De Witt
Brookline

Q. My significant other and I are buying a 1926 house with pretty  
good windows with aluminum storm windows. Should we be thinking about  
getting new windows?

A. This is the time when I go into my perennial sermon on the folly  
of certain things around the house. Replacement windows is one of  
them. We have been brainwashed by the window industry into believing  
that we must have new double-glazed windows to save heat, fuel, and  
comfort. Maybe. Maybe not. If your windows are in reasonably good  
shape, reasonably tight, and can be weather stripped if not already  
weather stripped, there is no earthly reason to pay $700 to $1,000  
for one replacement window. And if your storm windows are also  
reasonably tight and workable, then, combining the storm with the  
main window, you have essentially what a replacement window is. There  
are variations, of course, depending on whether the new window has  
Low E glass and a gas, not air between the panes, but the differences  
in insulating value are likely to be minor.

Say you put in 20 new windows for $500 each. That is $10,000, which  
will never be made up in savings achieved by the new windows in  
anyone's lifetime. It is also interesting that replacement windows  
are generally warranted for 20 years. Twenty years? That is nothing  
for a good window. But of course that warranty is on the double  
glazing and its seal, which they still can't get right.

Storm windows are another matter, and at least they are relatively  
inexpensive to replace, $200 to $400 a pop. Old storms can be very  
leaky, because of their design, and a new one might make a  
difference. The best storm windows I have found (and own) are Harvey  
Tru-Channels, which are virtually airtight because they fit in a U- 
shaped groove, not an L-shaped groove as in old storms.

. . .  of course see that the house is well insulated (walls, attic  
floor, and basement ceiling).