Low-E Glass Coatings Improve Winter Efficiency

Posted on Monday, November 28th, 2011

Low-E coatings are invisible to the naked eye on a window, but they make a big difference in energy efficiency in your home. To accomplish such a feat, manufacturers apply a microscopically thin metal or metallic oxide layer directly onto the surface of the glass in a vinyl replacement window. The Low-E coating reduces the infrared radiation from a warm pane of glass to a cooler pane, thereby lowering the U-factor of the window.

Low-E glass coatings have been used since the 80’s to accommodate the needs of every geography. Different types of Low-E coatings have been designed to allow for high solar gain, moderate solar gain, or low solar gain. A Low-E coating can also reduce a window’s visible transmittance unless you use one that’s spectrally selective, like Dixie Super Window.

ERG Low-E Glass

Dixie Super Windows contain Energy Reflective Glass (ERG) to improve the insulating value of a window roughly as much as adding an additional pane of glass does. Combining low-E coatings with insulating gas fillings like krypton and argon can boost energy efficiency by nearly 100% over clear glass. The added cost for low-E coatings and inert gas fillings is only about 5% of the window’s overall cost, but will save you much more money on your energy bills in the long run.

Dixie Super Window Low-E coating is specially designed to reflect the sun’s long-wave heat energy while admitting visible light, thereby keeping the house cooler in the summer. For winter, they also pass visible light and long-wave radiant heat into the house and reflect it back into the interior.

We call our Low-E coating ERG™ Energy Reflective Glass. ERG glass permits 64 percent of the sun’s natural light to enter your home while blocking 72 percent of its heat energy. You can expect to cut winter heat loss by nearly 50 percent.

Our Dual-pane windows with less conductive frames, combined with the high quality glass and type of spacers used to create the air space all serve to improve energy performance. Low-E coatings are just one of many advancements that improve the overall energy efficiency of new vinyl replacement window.

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