Low E Glass VS Reflective Glass

What is Low E Glass?

Low E stands for Low Emissivity.

In the glass and window industry, this term refers to glass that has been treated with a coating during the manufacturing process, which is intended to reduce the amount of infrared and ultraviolet rays entering your home through your windows.

The coatings do not affect the amount of visible sunlight coming into your home.

In other words, Low E windows have a transparent, thinner-than-human-hair coating that helps keep summer heat out and winter heat in.

How Does Low E Glass Work?

The primary function of Low E glass is filtering out harmful solar radiation (ultraviolet rays).

When such solar radiation hits a piece of glass that has a Low-E coating, the coating is essentially acting as a sunscreen and blocking harmful UV rays.

So how does this impact your energy costs? It’s simple – when regular glass is swapped out for Low E coated glass, less air-conditioning is required in the summer, and less heating is required in winter. Comfort levels go up, while costs go down.

In colder weather, Low E helps trap solar heat in the room. In other words, in the wintertime, Low E-coated windows act as a mild insulator, helping to improve drafty windows and reflect the heat in the room back onto the occupants.

Two Types of Low E Glass: Soft and Hard

There are two types of Low E glass: soft and hard-coated, and each comes with advantages and disadvantages.

Hard-Coat Low E Coatings – These passive Low E coatings are manufactured using the pyrolytic process, resulting in a pyrolytic coating that is sprayed on and then fused to the glass during the production process.

The hard coat is very durable and allows the glass to be tempered or accessorized with a blind in between panels, for example.

With hard-coated glass, the U-values will be higher, so the window won’t be as energy-efficient.

Hard-coated Low E glass also has a higher solar heat gain co-efficient, so more summer heat and light will be allowed to pass through. Hard coats are ideal for extremely cold climates.

Soft-Coat Low E Coatings (Soft-Coat) – These softer Low E coatings are manufactured using something referred to as the Magnetron Sputtering Vapor Deposition (MSVD) process.

The coating is applied once the pre-cut glass is off the production line at room temperature in a vacuum chamber. Soft coats need to be sealed in an insulated glass or laminated unit.

In many cases, argon gas is used as the insulator. Soft-coat Low E glass has lower emissivity than hard coats and better solar control performance.

Reflective Glass

Another way to reduce your heating and cooling costs by upgrading your windows is to switch out the regular glass of your sealed units with reflective glass that contains a metallic coating on the surface.

Like Low E coatings, reflective glass can be used in windows to control solar energy radiation.

This not only protects your eyes and your skin from sun damage, it also helps protect your furniture and carpet from fading. Reflective glass also helps regulate the home’s indoor temperatures.

The reflective glass comes in a variety of thicknesses, allowing property owners to control its strength and color. It can be cut, bent, tempered, heat-strengthened, and laminated without affecting the coating.

Glass Category: Insulated Glass, Laminated Glass

Eliterglass is a tempered toughened glass professional processing manufacturer and supplier in China.