Different Types of Low-E Glass (You Need To Know Before Buying Windows)

Hey guys, Sean with American Window Concepts, and today's video is going to be answering a question that I received on my video about the five myths of low E. And he had asked if I could do a video that explains how different low E's affect the visual light transmittance, solar heat gain coefficiency, and the U value. So let's get to it. When we're talking about the performance of the low E and how it affects the U factor, solar heat gain coefficient, and visible light transmittance, there's even the condensation resistance, and I'll add that in, there's a bonus. The low E's are going to be different grades, right? So I've done videos on that as well, how they look, how they perform. So you have Cardinal 366 glass, which actually this NFRC sticker will represent. The U factor is a 0.27. The U factor is the retention of heat inside the house at any given time, okay? So if it's cold outside and you're trying to warm up the house, that is the number that is your best friend. So 0.27 is going to be the performance data for this window. Now the lower the number, the better. So if it's 100, you have a single piece of glass, aluminum frames, and it's just freezing inside that area next to that window. So a 0.27 is going to be based off of the glass itself and the frame. So because these are vinyl windows, that's going to help with the U factor, okay? It doesn't transfer, it takes a long time to transfer heat, cold, or sound through any kind of vinyl. Now, when you have that plus a high performance glass, it's going to keep it warmer inside. That's why you have a 0.27, which is Title 24 compliant, okay? Anything below a 0.30 is a California compliance, 0.27 is going to register that, it's going to be perfect. The solar heat gain for 366 is going to be a 0.22, anything under 100 is going to be good, right? So 100%, 22 is 22%. Or the visible transmittance is 0.51. Now, it's going to be darker than a single or even a dual pane clear glass, right? So the low E coating is going to reflect a lot of the UV rays, therefore it's going to be darker. With the low E 366, your visual transmittance is going to be 51. Now, the lower the number, the darker it is, I'm sure you would gather that. If you really like that light infiltration, then what you want to do is go with a lighter low E. Standard for us is going to be 366, there's certain areas that you can go to where you can get lower ratings, so low E2, or a low E1 for that matter. Now, if you start doing that, your visible transmittance is going to start going up. But then also, your solar heat gain coefficient number is going to start going up as well. It won't protect you against the heat. So in some areas like maybe Colorado, the northern part, I mean, if you go to Denver, I know it gets really hot there, so you're still going to want to go with at least 366 in Denver. But if you start going up into Montana and things in that area, maybe you don't want to go with 366, because you want some of that free heat from the sun, right? We've covered that on 366. Now, let's go up to the Quad 452. Now, with this, it's going to be, the U factor is going to stay the same. It's not going to change the U factor. The solar heat gain number is going to go from a 0.22 to a 0.18 for this particular window. Let's talk about that for a second. If you have a single sliding window, you have less vinyl. If you were to have a casement window, you have more vinyl. More vinyl is technically more performance. Your weakest link of any window is going to be the glass, always. With this SunMatrix 452 or the Cardinal 452, your solar heat gain will be 0.18, means it's going to perform better against sun heat. Your visible transmittance also is going to go down. I'm going to say it's going to be about a 0.45. It's going to drop your light coming in. When you think of that, and I'm telling you, yes, it's going to make it dimmer in the room, a lot of customers think, uh-oh, it's going to get super dark in that room. I really don't want it to get dark. Most times, they have dark frames. Whenever you take, and most of our customers, like 95% of them, will go with white windows inside and out. Now, whenever you have that much white brightening up the room, all of a sudden, that visible transmittance number doesn't matter as much. I hear that all the time. They'll think, okay, here goes these new windows and put them in, but then these white frames are really brightening the room, and they're like, wow, it's actually brighter in here than it was before, but their glass is darker. But also, from the inside looking out, it looks clearer. It's all about high grade of glass and low E's. It's something that I hear all the time. If you're worried about getting a low E window because you're afraid that it's just going to be dark, this doesn't work like window tint on a car. This is different. Yes, on a 452, your visible transmittance will go down. U factor stays the same. Solar heat gain goes down, so it's performing better. Visible transmittance goes down, darker. But the white frames usually will brighten everything up and make it feel like it's brighter in the room. It's nice. Now, on this, this is G340. Now, G340 is going to be the darkest of all of them. Again, south facing, two-story houses, just burns on the inside of a house, and you're just looking for anything to help against that. G340 is your best friend. Your visible transmittance is going to go down quite a bit, maybe even 3.8, .38. So it's going to get a little darker. The frames are going to help brighten it up, but it will get darker. Let's talk a little bit about the condensation resistance. Condensation resistance is going to basically talk about, on the inside of your house, the ability for the glass to start to sweat, if you will. Where if you have humidity in the inside of the house and the glass temperature on the interior starts to cool down, you can see condensation building up on the coldest surfaces of the glass, whether it's at the very bottom, whether it's a little oval in the center, whatever the case may be. That's the resistance to that. Condensation resistance, that is talking about how the glass can be susceptible to condensation building up on the interior of your house. So if you're standing inside the house and you're looking at your window and you see a little bit of condensation moisture and you feel the moisture, that is what that is talking about. Now, it's going to be better than a single piece of glass, period, but it's still going to be susceptible to that. And here's going to be the main reason. One, new windows are going to tighten the envelope of your house. You've heard me say this before in other videos. All I'm saying is, if you lock up your windows on the whole house and you're cooking and you're doing laundry and you're speaking and you have pets and you have all these different things that are going on, you're creating moisture in the air, affecting your condensation resistance. All of that is getting trapped inside the house and the coldest surfaces are going to see some condensation build up. Now, it's resistant to it, but that doesn't mean that it's going to stop it altogether. In fact, you're probably going to increase some of that because of how these windows don't breathe very well. Once you lock them, the weather stripping, the frames, the glass, everything is doing its job to keep drafts out, to keep heat out, or keep heat in, whatever you're looking to do. All of a sudden, all that moisture inside the house is going to want to show up. Ice water sitting on the counter, cold window on the inside. If it's cold inside or you have the windows trapped behind shutters and it's warm inside and you open up the shutters, all of a sudden you start to see that there's some moisture on the window. That's not a bad window. It just means that you've created an atmosphere for the window to show condensation. Do some homework on that when you're making purchases and you will see exactly what I'm talking about. Interior condensation shows up from time to time. Not very often, but it does and it's just something to look out for. When it comes to your U-factor, if you want that number to go down, there's a couple of options. Usually, again, snowy areas, northern California, just the northern part where it gets really, really cold. The U-factor, you can get quadratherm glass, which is a pyrolytic coating that goes on the interior of the glass itself, so the inside paint. If it gets really cold outside, you can get this number to go down and you can get it down to about a 2322. That's very high performing. That makes it really, really nice and comfortable inside the house. Or you go triple pane. Triple pane is going to make your U-factor perform better. If you live in very, very cold areas, you either go triple pane or you do a dual pane window with a pyrolytic coating called quadratherm. That is going to help keep that warmth inside. I mean, very much so. Anyways, guys, hopefully that answers some of your questions. The 366, 452, G340. If you have any questions, go to our website, americanwindowconcepts.com. Thank you so much. Hey guys, if you live in the Ventura or Santa Barbara area and you are interested in getting replacement windows or doors, don't hesitate to reach out to us. You can go to our website, americanwindowconcepts.com. You can click on the get a free quote and fill out that information. I'll reach out to you within 24 hours. Thank you so much. Hey guys, thanks again for watching this video. If you want to be kept updated on new videos that are coming out, just hit that like button and subscribe to the channel. Thank you so much.