What to choose uPVC or Aluminum for windows and doors ?

The difference doesn't seem clear between uPVC and Aluminum materials for windows and doors, you even see windows or doors without noticing the difference. So, when should you choose aluminum and when uPVC looks better for you home ?

Both materials have benefits, it depends on the needs.

Aluminum windows used in commercial building

 - Large openings 

Aluminum is stronger than uPVC because of its material properties. So, large openings means larger surface area and more glass weight is loaded over this material. Windows and doors in commercial buildings, schools and some residential buildings with big openings are more preferable to use aluminum.

What's the weight of the glass ? 
The glass cannot be underestimated, let's take an example for window with small and large opening for different glass thicknesses, for example double glazed window with thickness 5 mm, width 1000 mm and 1000 mm length we can consider that this is a small opening, and the glass material weights 26 kilograms (57.33 pound). On the other hand lets take for example big door double glazed with thickness 6 mm, width 3000 mm and 2800 mm height the glass material in this case weights 262.08 kilograms (577.88 pound)!  

- Noise reduction and thermal insulation

Both options are great for noise reduction and thermal insulation as well, since these properties depends on the manufacture of the glass, so the materials doesn't matter at this point, where both materials can be double glazed and even triple. The space between the panes can be 12,14 or 16 mm and its filled with argon gas or air the make the noise isolation efficient and to act as a layer to prevent the heat from escaping outside or the cold to get in.

- Does both materials environmentally friendly ?

uPVC is not environmentally friendly because it's made from PVC material (polyvinyl chloride) such like plastic which is hardly recycled, where aluminum is more environmentally friendly because it can recycled for infinite number of times to give another products with the same strength and sometimes even stronger than the material which came from.

 - Durability

There is no difference in durability between aluminum and uPVC, both materials can survive the hardest conditions for 20 years without losing its color

- Cost efficiency and Design flexibility

Aluminum windows and doors has a greater design flexibility and larger color range collection compared with uPVC, and there's an option of dual color for aluminum. However, aluminum in most of the time is more expensive than uPVC which is more cost efficient because of the light material that it's made from.