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Tips What Is Low-E and Why Can't I See It? High-performance glasses feature today's newest technology but a lot of it is pretty much invisible to the naked eye. There's been a lot of talk about windows with high-performance glass and low-E or low-emissivity technology. Today, glasses may all pretty much look the same-just as they always did-but the technology can be somewhat different. What all these technologies do is make the window more energy efficient. For example, the most common low-emissivity or low-E is a technique of placing a thin layer (or layers) of film on a window to make it more energy efficient. The thin coats of film that are put on the window help it control the rays of the sun that hit the glass. This means that the rays can be rejected or bounced off when it is warm to keep a home cooler, or the heat from the inside of the house can be bounced back in to keep it warmer in the winter. The technology revolves around how the film is placed on the glass. To gain consumer acceptance, the film coatings had to keep the window clear enough so that there would be little if any noticeable darkening of the unit. That's what makes the paradox of getting the energy efficiency of low-E glass without being able to see any discernable difference in glass with or without it. It works pretty much unseen to the human eye. If you want to think of low-E as an illusion, do so. But, the difference it makes in your utility bill is no illusion. How do these new high-performance and low-E glasses work? The diagrams below answer that unseen mystery. Diagrams courtesy of AFG Industries, Inc. Visit its Web site, www.afgindustries.com, for more information about today's energy efficient windows. Source: The Consumer Guide to Windows, Glass Magazine, December 2000. |
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