Dear Nathan
24th January 2012

Last week was a bad one for the eurozone and the UK is teetering on the brink of another recession. That’s the bad news, if you want it – the glass half-empty story.

But what about the good news – there’s lots of it – the glass half-full story? WERs are really building momentum, and homeowners are buying energy rated windows.

The Green Deal will launch in October and will make consumers even more energy conscious. A national consumer survey commissioned by DGCOS found 61% of homeowners now put cutting energy bills as their top reason to replace their windows. B&Q says consumers know more about the Green Deal than the trade, and the huge advertising campaigns haven’t even started!

Some firms are already selling triple glazed windows. One or two are standardising on them!

Most warm edge spacers can manage WERs, but many (not Swisspacer) need help from costly low-iron glass to get an A. Some spacer suppliers are nervous about triple glazing. But triple glazing is coming. The Green Deal will boost demand for it, and expected revisions to building regulations will require new buildings to be zero carbon in 2016. The simplest way to achieve that is with triple glazing.

Swisspacer is a rigid spacer bar with the exact external dimensions of traditional aluminium spacers so it can be used on your existing machinery. It’s strong enough to cope with the extra pane of glass in triple glazing, and it has excellent thermal properties, helping you get the best possible energy ratings.

Consumers want window energy ratings and they love triple glazing when it’s sold to them. In Germany it’s already taken 40% of the market and the UK is going down the same road. Yes there’s no shortage of bad news, but equally there’s no shortage of good news. So, let’s all give ourselves a more cheerful glass-half-full 2012 and go for it!

Yours sincerely
Vic De Costa
Marketing and sales manager (UK and Ireland)
Swisspacer