What Are Low-E Coatings For Windows?

[Music] hi I'm Jeff Flutie with Houston window experts and today I'm here to talk to you about low E coatings for windows and doors the question is what are they do I need them and does it actually work let's go take a look so when people are looking for new windows indoors for their home the question arises a lot of times what is an energy star rated window and what is Loic coating do I need it does it actually work and so this question is so common I thought I'd make a quick video explaining loi coatings solo-e actually stands for low emissivity coating it helps reject the heat from the Sun back out where it came from and from the house back in so imagine this a warmer winter and a cooler summer in your home that's the idea behind low emissivity coatings it's actually silver oxide that's applied to the glass between the panes you can't get to it and scratch it off or damage it that keeps it protected and it's kind of like a film in fact I'm going to show you how it works and explain to you a little bit more about low e to see if this is something you need on your windows and doors so today for our demonstration I have this typical heat lamp from a 1970s bathroom do you remember those heat lamps in the bathrooms maybe you've got one and I'm gonna turn it on and it's gonna create quite a bit of heat I can really feel the heat coming off of this and in fact I'd like to just kind of show you with this digital thermometer that has a laser on it's gonna tell us a temperature that light so you can see here that look I'm like at 300 degrees when I'm aiming straight at that oh my gosh 325 327 332 it's just it's just incredibly hot so here's an example of what would happen if you had glass it's clear like you would in a single pane window that's not treated at all and we're gonna see what it does for the temperatures so we're in the 270 range and so here you see this is clear single pane glass look at that - 20 to 30 - 35 to 40 I mean you can really feel the heat coming through on this and then loi coatings come in two different levels of coating one's a double coat and one's a triple coat so you can get zero coats two coats and three coats and here's the two coats and that's ninety five point six ninety five point four you know in the range of 94 95 and if I put my hand here I just how do you feel anything at all then there's the triple coat three coats of LOI actually I feel nothing now you can see here with three coats of LOI I'm under ninety degrees I'm at 84 85 makes a huge difference between no low e to low E and three low E so no coats really hot two coats really great three coats it just basically eliminates it completely so I want to show you though the compromise that's involved when you get two or three coats of Louis over clear glass so follow me over here and by the way while we're walking that way I'm gonna show you around our showroom we have 20 different brands of windows and doors to pick from Andersen Pella Milgard Marvin am still a lot of different brands and if you're in the area drop in here in Houston and come take a look so I wanted to show you this I set up a little demo here for you this is an Anderson window and this is an AAMCO window and this window does not have any low e coatings on it at all this is just clear glass but it is double pane this one has three coats of the silver oxide low E and can you see the difference how this is really nice and white I've put a piece of paper behind there and just taped it to the back of the glass and this one has more of a greenish hue to it that's that's kind of the cost of getting the energy efficiency is you're going to lose some light and you're going to get a little more of a green look whereas on this you're gonna stay clear but this will meet Energy Star guidelines this window in this condition with this glass is not going to do much for you for heat or cold where this one's really gonna make a big difference in a big impact in your house one of the other benefits to of using Loic coatings is that with a Loic coating you can get as much as ninety nine percent reduction of ultraviolet light penetrating through your window which means that your furniture and your carpet and your flooring is not going to deteriorate quite as quickly and you're not going to end up with discoloration and fading now there's one more thing you should know about low E when making a decision for windows and doors it's what part of the country do you live in because in the South you have to remember we're spending nine months of the year trying to keep the out of the house and keep the cool in whereas up north in Minnesota in Michigan in places like that it's just the opposite you're trying to keep the heat in and keep the cold out so just so you know with the different places you live determines where we put the coating if it's southern climate the coatings going to be on surface number two which is the inside of the outside pane of glass and if you're in northern climate to be on surface three which is the inside of the inside pane of the glass so in this case this windows designed to be in a southern climate it's going to reject the heat and keep the cool inside if I actually was get installed this window in a cold climate I'd have to install it backwards for it to work so ordering the right glass for the right part of the country you live in and what your needs are is very important so make sure you're doing that and you're getting expert advice from someone who understands how low a coatings work lastly you can enhance any Loic coating any double pane window by adding argon gas we'll cover that in another video at a later date but with argon and Loic coatings and good double strength double pane windows you should notice a great and considerable benefit to your heating bill your cooling bill the comfort in your home the longevity of your furniture and also sound reduction so thanks for watching if we can help please give us a call don't forget to subscribe and hit the little bell that will you be notified of future videos from Houston window experts thanks for your time [Music] you

Channel: Houston Window Experts

Views: 86,532

Keywords: windows, replacement, low e, emissivity, houston, experts, how it works, jeff ludy, ludy, home, renovation, replacement windows, energy star windows, what is low-e?, low-e

Id: wfRI8JAH9ak

Length: 6min 42sec (402 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 23 2019