LEARN ABOUT GLASS TYPES FOR WINDOWS IN PHOENIX & MESA, AZ

3 layers of Low-E on surface 2 with a 66% visible light transmittance. The visible light transmittance is calculated on center of glass measurement. When you add the frame to the measurement more light is blocked. 66% is virtually clear when viewed from the inside. From the outside especially in sunlight you will see a greenish hue. It’s not really a tint but a wave length of light that is reflected has a greenish hue to the eye. The glass appears greener when there is something white behind the glass, like wood shutters or blinds. This is the current technology used as state of the art energy glass used in windows that are trying to meet the highest standards.

It first came out in 2008. New home construction contractors still don’t use it in new homes and most of them don’t even know what it is. The standard in the industry is to use 20-year-old technology and call it cutting edge Low E glass.

When you use this glass in conjunction with the following 3 factors, you can meet current energy star requirements in all zones throughout the United States.

• This glass must be filled with argon gas and not have capillary tubes, so it doesn’t leak out. Argon is useless if capillary tubes are installed in the glass (most of them have this).
• Use a warm edge spacer that can maintain a partial vacuum.
• The frame of the window is not all aluminum. It can have an aluminum outer skin (aluminum clad frame), but the inside frame must be a non-conductive material.

Regular glass is called annealed glass. When it breaks it breaks into large shards that are deadly. Glass that is low to the ground where people can walk or fall through it or glass in a shower, pool area, doorway, on a staircase landing etc… where people can slip is tempered. Tempered glass is 4 times as hard to break & when it does break, it breaks into little cube looking pieces that may scratch you but it usually doesn’t cut deep.

Tempered glass is also called safe glass. Regular glass shatters at 350°. Annealed glass can be cut into any size easily, which makes custom sizing not too much problem. Once glass is tempered it can’t be cut without the glass shattering. This makes custom sizing more expensive. To custom size tempered glass 1st you must cut a piece of regular glass to the size you need. Then you put the glass in a pressure furnace increase the temperature & pressure on the glass until it reaches approx. 450°. The glass doesn’t shatter at 350 degrees because the pressure keeps the glass together. Then it is slowly cooled.

The result – the heat increases the strength of the glass but if there is a significant impact or something with a small point (ex: ice pick) the glass will shatter into tiny little pieces. Basically, tempered glass is strong, pre-broken tiny pieces of glass created in high heat and pressure. An example is the driver side window in your car.