Is Double Glazing Worth It During A Living Cost Crisis?

It’s scary to think about forking up a few thousand dollars on double glazing when the housing market and cost of living seem to be at a tipping point. At least for small installation projects, with a few windows, the pill (and bills) is easier to swallow, but on a 3-4 bedroom home, costs can range from anywhere between $12,000 - $24,000+ entirely.

You’d need to skip many holidays before you’re able to save up for an installation, and that’s considering best case scenarios, not including maintenance and other incidental costs.

Fortunately, this is often only the case when lower-quality installations fail prematurely because of unreliable double glazing quality and installation jobs done from day one.

Double glazing, like many big-ticket purchases, are long-term investments that give you your money’s worth when they actually last. That’s where warranties like ARCO’s 10 years of glass and frame structural integrity are crucial; and quality units, that ensure lower energy and maintenance bills, play their part too.

We do the maths on what the costs could look like and whether it’s worth it in times like now, below.

Part 1: Typical cost of double glazing

For the purpose of example, we will use a uPVC frame and a standard double glazing unit, including its installation costs. Let’s break down the numbers:

uPVC Frames: $350–$700/m²

IGU (Insulated Glass Unit): $250–$500/m²

Total: $600-$1,200/m²

Additionally, let’s say a typical home is a 3x2, which means it has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, in addition to 1 living room and kitchen with windows. The average number and sizes of windows are as follows:

Per bedrooms: 2 windows of 1.2m x 1.2m. Approximately ~ 2.88m²

Per bathrooms: 1 window of 0.9 x 0.6m. Approximately ~ 0.54m²

Per living room/kitchen: 1 window of 1.8m x 1.5m. Approximately ~ 2.7m²

Per 3x2 house: Approximately ~ 12.42m²;

Total cost per 3x2 house: Between $600 x 12.42m² to $1,200 x 12.42m².

Therefore an average 3x2 house has about 12.42m² in window space required to be installed, and can cost anywhere between $7,452 - $14,904, subject to each home’s conditions and layout.

Part 2: Is it viable?

To determine if this cost is viable and worth it, we will compare the cost of living against the cost of a full double glazing installation for a 3x2 home that we’ve calculated. This is done over 10 years as most of ARCO’s units come with glass and frame warranties, so we can assume you won’t need to cough up more money for repairs, or worst case, replacements.

Keeping it simple, let’s use the cost of electricity bills alone for a typical household. In 2026, this is about $1,910 annually for a 3-person household in Western Australia (source: Kevin Goh, Canstar Blue). With double glazing you can improve your energy efficiency by up to 33%, which means you can potentially save the same amount in energy bills (for details see our blog on

You’re not only helping the environment by reducing electricity usage, but you’re also saving about $630 from your $1,910 bill. Compounding this over 10 years, that is almost over $6,300 or about a net save of 84% to 42% on your initial $7,452 - $14,904 installations!

Typically, households replace their windows every 15-30 years, so you can expect to actually “make money” in the perfect case where you continue to save on bills without any window repairs. If you’re curious to find out more, you can grab a quote from our instant estimator, but do your own research before any purchases, or see our terms and conditions, and contact ARCO Double Glazing if you have any questions.

Remember that you save more the longer the units lasts. So if you’re worried about the costs for your home upgrades during economic turbulence, go for quality and products designed for long-term performance, rather than cutting corners to save on units that are unreliable and without extensive warranties.