Does Triple Glazing Help Stop Sound Pollution?
Three decibels may not sound like much (literally), but it may be more than you realised. Here we will go all ‘Big Bang Theory’ and get our Sheldon on to talk about how triple glazing can reduce the pesky noises from cars, planes and even kids playing in the street.
We’ve teamed up with the technical geniuses at Anglian Home Improvements to find out more about triple glazed windows and we have a video of a test Anglian performed on their new triple glazed windows. Before we get stuck into this, lets find out about decibels, what they are and get an idea on what sounds equate to what on the decibel scale.
Decibels
So, decibels (dB) is the measurement of a sounds’ loudness, beginning at 0 and working it’s way up logarithmically to the loudest sound possible at 194dB. This means that 40dB isn’t just double 20dB it is a lot more powerful too, which is why being subjected to sounds of 100dB or more will damage your ears.
To give you an idea on the scale of noise, a whisper in a quiet library is about 30dB, whereas a jet engine is around 140dB, a level that even short term exposure to can cause permanent damage.
A regular conversation comes in at about 60dB with traffic noise from inside a car at 85dB. From your home, traffic noise will obviously be quieter, but your windows are one area that sound will travel through, so how can you make it quieter? All is explained in the video below.
How Triple Glazing Deadens Noise
So triple glazing can effectively half the amount of traffic noise entering your home, but how?
Sound travels in waves through the air, vibrating anything they hit. This vibration is what causes sound to travel through some materials – it all depends on the type of material, some transfer sound better than others. Glass does allow noise to travel through it, albeit not an easy task, it does get through.
Triple glazing works so well because of the amount of layers the sound has to travel through with each pane of glass weakening the strength of the sound wave. This means that by the time it does get through (if it gets through at all) it is much quieter and much less noticeable.
This soundproofing can be improved further with minor modifications such as a thin plastic layer or coating on the glass. This not only increases security by acting as a laminate for the glass, it helps trap the noise.
It isn’t just triple glazing that is effective at blocking sound. You can get specially made double glazing, such as Anglian’s Safe and Sound glass which produces 36dB of sound insulation. It works by having two panes of glass with different thickness. This breaks down the sound waves more as it changes the shape of the waves, slowing them in their path.
Whatever windows you have installed will do a certain job of preventing noise entering your home, however, it’s worth looking at how they’re built – is it double or triple, is each pane of glass the same thickness, is their a layer of laminate on any of the glass?
Ask yourself these questions when looking to get new windows to reduce noise entering your home, and you are bound to choose the best option and notice the difference.