Windows are a major source of heat loss from a house because glass has a higher thermal conductivity than the other materials typically used in construction and because insulation can be placed inside walls but not windows. A typical house has $32$ m$2$ of windows, and window glass is typically $4\mathrm{.}0$ mm thick. Double$-$pane windows are two panes of glass separated by a $3\mathrm{.}0-$ mm $-$wide gap filled with dry air. The gap has to be narrow to prevent convection currents in the air. Air is such a better insulator than glass that, to a good approximation, the thermal conductivity of a double$-$pane window is simply that of the layer of air. What is the rate of heat loss on the $-5$C day if the house has double$-$pane windows?

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To calculate the rate of heat loss through the doublepane windows we can use ... View the full answer