Are There Color Options for Your Low-E Glass Coatings?

Are There Color Options for Your Low-E Glass Coatings?

Colors are great on walls, textiles and artwork, but is there a place for them on your windows? There have been extensive innovations to provide homeowners with more efficient and higher performing products and appliances for decades; your glass windows and doors are just one example.

From impact glass to window treatments, your windows and doors have become staple pieces that help you save money in the long run on your largest, most valuable investment—your home!

High performance installations, such as Eastern Architectural Systems’ windows and doors, foster energy efficiency, security and storm protection.

There are several treatment and design options to enhance our Florida Approved impact installations, including Low-E glass coatings which help regulate a home’s energy costs and increase a window’s overall performance.

Are There Color Options for Low-E Glass Coatings?

It is important to understand that Low-E coatings are not the same and should not be used in conjunction with a window tint treatment because it might result in slight discoloration. As window tints add alloy materials to the glass, the depth of color will change with the thickness of the glass.

In contrast, a Low-E coating is a thin metallic coat that is applied to the glass and will not have color variations based on the thickness of the glass. However, it may have a minor, often unnoticeable, reflective and slightly green tint.  

How Low-E Glass Coatings Work?

Low-E glass coatings reduce the ultraviolet and infrared light that passes through the glass without reducing the natural illumination, or visible light. What this means to you is more consistent and reduced energy costs and preservation of your interior materials, such as curtains, furniture and flooring.

“Low-E glass has a microscopically thin, transparent coating—it is much thinner than a human hair—that reflects long-wave infrared energy (or heat). Some low-e's also reflect significant amounts of short-wave solar infrared energy. When the interior heat energy tries to escape to the colder outside during the winter, the low-e coating reflects the heat back to the inside, reducing the radiant heat loss through the glass. The reverse happens during the summer.” - Glassed

3 Benefits Of Low-E Glass Coatings

Some of the benefits you’ll enjoy from Low-E coated glass windows and doors, include:

1.Better regulated temperatures all year round reducing your energy costs

2.No special maintenance required; and, since the coating is applied to the inside of the glass, you don’t have to worry about it scratching off like a window tint treatment can.

3.UV fading protection for your furniture and fabrics

“Homes and commercial buildings consume 40% of the energy used in the United States. Of the $2,000 the average American spends paying for energy annually, $200 to $400 could be going to waste from drafts, air leaks around openings, and outdated heating and cooling systems...Install more energy efficient windows, doors, and skylights by looking for ENERGY STAR products ... About 20% of this air infiltrates through openings in your windows, doors, and skylights. Storm windows alone can reduce heat loss through windows by 25% to 50%.” - Energy.gov

Determining if Your Windows Have a Low-E Glass Coating

Do you know if your home is built with Low-E glass coated installations? Use the following tutorial from geoshield to help you determine if they are coated.

Interested in learning how you can create an energy efficient home? Download your complimentary copy of The Homeowner’s Guide to Energy Efficient Windows and discover window treatment options, understand your window and door ratings and more!

Low e coating on tinted glass-advantage&disadvantage

Normal low e coating are coated on normal clear float glass,or low iron float glass,while many facade designers prefer low e coating on tinted glass for below reason:

a.Low glass  reflective ratio:tinted glass such as euro grey glass,French green glass ,euro bronze glass reflective ratio is about 6%-8%,once coated with low e coating,the double glazed units reflective ratio will be below 10%.

b.Low solar coefficient.For some hot areas,such as southeast Asian countries,the project require both low U value,and low SC value.

Normal double silver low-E minimum SC value is 0.3,while some project require 0.28 or even lower SC value,to achieve the glass performance data,low e coated tinted glass is necessary.

c.Colorful glass facade.low-e on clear glass has limited color options:Silver grey low e,clear low e,blue low-e,gold color low e.To make the glass facade different from other buildings,colorful tinted glass with low E coating can make a great difference.

While most glass processors don’t like tinted glass with low e coating orders,the disadvantage of this kind of insulated glass are:

a.Higher price.Low-e coating process require fresh glass,but for production schedule reason,there’s few chance to get fresh tinted glass,to solve this,processors have to cut,temper the tinted glass first and then have low e coating.Compared with standard sized low e glass,coating after tempering process production efficiency is at least 50% lower than standard clear low e production.

b.Out of production capability.

Only few large glass processors have low-E coating line that can supply this kind of glass.Most glass processors have to ask assistance of the coating process.While for above mentioned low production efficiency,and potential arguments about glass quality(glass color,coating quality，float glass quality)etc,large processors wouldn’t like to offer coating service for small processors,so this kind of orders are usually out of small processors’ supply capability.

c.Glass samples&replacement:both the glass samples and replacements have the same process procedure-cut,edging,temper,coating,insulating,packing.

It takes much time and costs to prepare samples for approval and glass replacement.Sometimes,the delayed arrival of samples and replacements will cause losing project or penalty.

d.Delayed delivery.

There’s few manufacturers produce tinted glass,for some reason,processors cannot get required tinted glass in time which will cause delayed delivery time.

e.Potential color difference.

Every lot tinted glass has slight color difference,if the project supplying last long time or have large quantity glass replacement,processors cannot find same lot tinted glass for previous supplied glass.In this case,color difference is easily happened.

Wallkingdon Glass offers not only one of the broadest selections of architectural, decorative, and specialty glass, but we also offer services that allow our clients to do more with glass. If you want to get high quality glass and the cost effective solutions while keeping quality to highest level, send an email to enquiry@wallkingdonglass.com, we will have the valuable input and creativity of glass design experts to help you.