THE POWER OF LOW-E GLASS IN WINDOWS
• What is Low-E Glass?
• Low-E glass is specialized glass that comes with a microscopically thin coating that effectively reflects infrared light. This protective coating is completely see-through and it doesn’ t stop any of the rest of the sunlight from making it into your home. This means that the glass will help protect your house, and help maintain internal temperatures, but it will also allow your home to remain bright all throughout the day.
• Benefits of Low-E Glass
• Low-E glass does a few different things at once to help your home remain comfortable throughout the day and to help lower your cooling costs throughout the year. The protective coating on the glass keeps out warming infrared light from making it into your home by reflecting it back out. This minimizes heat generation within your home from sunlight. It also helps reflect internal temperatures back into your home, serving as an insulating barrier to keep cold air in, or warm air in depending on the time of year that it is.
• Choosing Hard-Coat or Soft-Coat Low-E
• There are two different types of Low-E coatings available today, soft-coat and hard-coat. Soft-coat low-E tends to be more expensive and difficult to manufacture, and it’ s installed within the insulating part of the window itself. This coating offers the very best level of protection, but it’ s more fragile. Hard-coat Low-E layers are easier to manufacture, far more durable, more affordable and slightly less effective. When deciding between these two options you need to look at prices very closely and decide using the cost difference and durability difference of the two options.