There aren't that many global certainties any more - but the rocketing price of energy is one you can rely on. The cost of heating a home is set to spiral ever upwards over the next 10 years.

New building regulations enforce high insulation standards on new houses but owners of older properties face a real dilemma, especially with Home Information Packs (HIP) rating the energy efficiency of any house up for sale, being compulsory from next June. For those millions of homes with mainly wooden sash windows, the choice has been between paying the enormous price of fitting custom-made double glazed replacements or living with ugly inefficient secondary glazing structures grafted onto their windows. So the vast majority have simply turned up the heating again.

"We offer a real alternative and, through energy saving or HIP valuation, one that ultimately pays for itself," says Sash-Glaze Production Director Richard Richardson. "It is virtually invisible from outside, barely noticeable from inside, and seriously tough! We offer a novel means of sealing off heat losses and draughts on sash windows utilising laminated Pilkington Optilam glass. No frame or seals remain in the summer when you take it down, and this type of glass is a real barrier to burglars and reduces noise - it makes for a combined sales message which pushes at an open door."

Candy Battiscombe heads up the Sash-Glaze Franchisee Support Services. "The aim is to take the burden of running a business off the franchisee and let them concentrate on the sales and the client," she says. "We can provide a ready made operation - the liveried van, every tool, a credit card merchant facility, a full business insurance package, all stationery and sales aids, payroll and personnel services, tax advice, website and e-mail, full training and a liaison manager to support you.

"Apart from finding your own premises and hiring staff, almost everything else is catered for, and you will be in a very friendly club sharing technical and business tips, exchanging reference sells and be next in line for the new products."

Best of all is the ease of finding customers. We show our franchisees how simple it is to identify customers. Walk down any street and look at the buildings around you, and listen to the traffic or the noisy school. After five minutes' training you can spot a single glazed sash window. Whether they are terraced or mansions, they will be cold and noisy. Those are your customers and they are ready to listen to you.

Sash-Glaze is owned by Diak, an engineering company founded in 1979 with a long history of engineering solutions for clients like the European Union, World Bank, oil and utility companies. The product has been on trials for two years. It will now be solely available via franchisees selling, assembling and installing in 50 new territories covering the UK and Ireland.

The franchise was created with the advice of Franchise Development Services Southern consultant Gordon Patterson, who adds: "We have worked with the management of Sash-Glaze to investigate the possibility of expanding their business through franchising. In so doing, we were most impressed with the quality and distinctiveness of the product, the expertise of management, the attractive features of the Sash-Glaze system, the huge market potential and the opportunity to build an attractive business. It now requires foundational pilot franchisees who have belief in the business model to implement it in practice. For a management franchise it provides a rather unique opportunity within a very defined target market."