What is win­dow film?

Win­dow film is a poly­ester based film that is applied to flat glass or any type of glass sur­face. It is gen­er­ally designed to reduce heat energy par­tic­u­larly, solar heat energy, as well as giv­ing a build­ing a cer­tain type of aes­thetic image. The mate­ri­als used range from var­i­ous com­po­nents such as met­als, ceram­ics, and dif­fer­ent dyed mate­ri­als. There are films designed for secu­rity pro­tec­tion from glass shat­ter­ing, blast mit­i­ga­tion films to pre­vent col­lat­eral dam­age caused by fly­ing glass debris, and dec­o­ra­tive films designed to give glass a cer­tain appeal or look in both com­mer­cial and res­i­den­tial applications.

Click here to read a gov­ern­ment report on win­dow film.

How does it work?

Win­dow films work by reflect­ing the solar energy away from the home or busi­ness. Some films have a reflec­tive or shiny appear­ance and reflect vis­i­ble light away. Other films work by reflect­ing Infrared light away. Infrared light is a non­vis­i­ble light that causes the major­ity of solar heat gain. These infrared reduc­ing films block lit­tle vis­i­ble light and add very lit­tle reflec­tion to the win­dows keep­ing vis­i­bil­ity as clear as possible

Isn’t Win­dow Film Expensive?

The aver­age instal­la­tion costs less than most other win­dow treat­ments. Actu­ally, your invest­ment in win­dow film will return div­i­dends in the form of reduced air con­di­tion­ing and heat­ing costs, and pro­tec­tion against costly fading.

Will Win­dow Tint­ing Stop The Sun From Fad­ing Fabrics?

There are six fac­tors affect­ing fab­ric fading:

1. Ultra­vi­o­let Light
2. Vis­i­ble Light
3. Heat and Humidity
4. Chem­i­cal Vapors (includ­ing ozone)
5. Age of Fabric
6. Dye Fast­ness

Clear sin­gle pane glass (1÷8″ to 1/4″) will reject 23–28% of the ultra­vi­o­let light from the sun. Insu­lated glass is slightly bet­ter, reject­ing 36–41%. Our win­dow films installed on glass reject at least 99% of solar ultra­vi­o­let light. Dif­fer­ent types of clear glass and win­dow sys­tems will reject 13– 29% of the solar heat. With win­dow films, 80% of solar heat can be rejected. No win­dow film can com­pletely elim­i­nate fad­ing. It can, how­ever, offer max­i­mum pro­tec­tion from fad­ing due to solar ultra­vi­o­let light and solar heat.

How Long Will My New Win­dow Film Last?

The effec­tive life of win­dow film will vary by the type of film, type of glass, win­dow con­struc­tion, com­pass ori­en­ta­tion of glass, and in which part of the world the build­ing is located. There are doc­u­mented cases of film last­ing 20 to 25 years or more in some instances.

All qual­ity win­dow films for res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial use are war­ranted by the film man­u­fac­tur­ers for a min­i­mum of five years. Most com­mer­cial instal­la­tions have a ten to fif­teen year war­ranty. Most res­i­den­tial appli­ca­tions have a life-time war­ranty. The war­ranty includes an address to con­tact the man­u­fac­turer directly should any ques­tions arise either before or after the instal­la­tion of the win­dow film.

Are There Any Spe­cial Clean­ing Instructions?

Win­dows with film applied are eas­ily cleaned with­out dam­age to their appear­ance as long as a few common-sense guide­lines are followed:

• Use a soft clean cloth, soft paper towel, or clean syn­thetic sponge.
• Use a soft cloth or squeegee for dry­ing the window.
• Use any nor­mal glass clean­ing solu­tion which con­tains no abra­sive materials.

The avail­abil­ity of scratch resis­tant coat­ings as a stan­dard fea­ture of qual­ity films has vir­tu­ally elim­i­nated the need for extra spe­cial pre­cau­tions in cleaning.

Will Win­dow Film Kill My House Plants?

In most cases if a house plant is already receiv­ing ade­quate light the use of win­dow film will not harm it. New growth or flow­er­ing may be retarded, and, for a few days, a plant may go into a state of shock while it adjusts to the light change. If a par­tic­u­lar plant nor­mally wilts by the end of a sunny day, it will actu­ally thrive bet­ter with film installed. Although there are some obvi­ous guide­lines in deter­min­ing what, if any, effect win­dow film will have on a plant (for instance, dark green plants need less light than lighter col­ored ones), there is one sam­ple test which can be done prior to film instal­la­tion: merely move the plant to an area with less sun­light for a few days. In addi­tion, most nurs­eries or local agri­cul­ture agen­cies can advise you whether a par­tic­u­lar plant needs closer to max­i­mal or min­i­mal light.

Will the win­dow film turn pur­ple like it did on my car?

Auto­mo­tive films are dyed, metal alloys or a com­bi­na­tion of the two. All prod­ucts with dye will turn pur­ple after time. This is a nat­ural process of fad­ing of the dyes. We do not apply auto­mo­tive films to homes or offices. Films that are used for res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial appli­ca­tions con­sist of metal alloys and ceram­ics. Metal alloys and ceram­ics are more color sta­ble and do not turn col­ors after time.

What is the dif­fer­ence between res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial win­dow films?

Most rea­sons for apply­ing win­dow film to office is for heat and glare. The glare is so intense that one is unable to see their com­puter mon­i­tors, and the heat is unbear­able. Com­mer­cial films are usu­ally dark and reflec­tive. Res­i­den­tial films are lighter and less reflec­tive. Our main goal is not to alter the appear­ance of the home. We want to enhance the appear­ance. Our most pop­u­lar res­i­den­tial film, can reject up to 70% of the solar energy and is very light in shad­ing. Note the dif­fer­ence between tra­di­tional films and Huper Optik.

My friend has solar screens. What is the difference?

Solar screens are screens, usu­ally black in color, mounted on the exte­rior of the home. There are var­i­ous den­si­ties of screens, the darker the more heat absorbed. Unfor­tu­nately they are not opti­cally clear to look through. They need cleaned peri­od­i­cally, which requires remov­ing and then rein­stalling them. They do break down due to the hot sun and inclement weather and will in time need to be replaced. Solar con­trol win­dow film is mounted on the inte­rior panes of glass. Once installed, they are a part of the glass. They are opti­cally clear and are much eas­ier to clean. Since the films are mounted on the inte­rior, they are not sub­ject to inclement weather and will last much, much longer. Unlike solar screens, a wide array of win­dow film choices are available.

Can Win­dow Film Be Used On Low E Windows?

Whether win­dow film should be used on low E win­dows and how much you will ben­e­fit depends on three factors:

1. Type of low E sur­face used on glass.
2. Loca­tion of low E sur­face in the win­dow system.
3. The desired amount of heat gain reduc­tion, heat loss reduc­tion, or other film benefits.

There are two basic types of low E sur­faces on glass. One of these is a con­duc­tive coat­ing put on glass as it is being made. It gives some heat loss reduc­tion, but does
lit­tle to reduce heat gain into a build­ing. The sec­ond type is a more com­plex sys­tem of mul­ti­ple lay­ers of met­als and con­duc­tive coat­ings deposited on glass after it has been made. This type of low E glass gives heat reduc­tions of 30% to 50% in addi­tion to reduc­ing heat loss. Obvi­ously there will be more heat gain reduc­tion using film on the first type. If there is any ques­tion about the type you may have, ask your glass com­pany or the win­dow man­u­fac­turer to send you the spe­cific infor­ma­tion about your glass.

The loca­tion of the low E sur­face in your win­dow sys­tem is also very impor­tant in decid­ing whether film should be used. If the low E coat­ing is on the room-side sur­face of the inner­most pane of glass, the use of win­dow film may reduce or elim­i­nate the heat loss reduc­tion of the glass itself. This may be more than off­set by the heat gain reduction/heat loss reduc­tion prop­er­ties of the films to be used. Most low E win­dow sys­tems, how­ever, con­sist of dou­ble pane win­dows where the low E sur­face faces the air space between the panes. In this case, film can be installed with­out elim­i­nat­ing the heat loss reduc­tion ben­e­fit of the low E glass. The type of win­dow film you choose for low E glass depends entirely on your desired ben­e­fit –whether you want to reduce heat gain, con­trol glare, pre­vent heat loss, reduce fad­ing or enhance the safety of your win­dows and glass doors. Care­fully con­sider all these ben­e­fits before mak­ing a final decision.

Will Win­dow Films Cause Glass To Break?

Glass breaks when stressed. There are five types of stress which may cause glass breakage:

1. Ther­mal Stress–from absorp­tion of solar radiation.
2. Ten­sile Stress–from the weight of the glass itself.
3. Mechan­i­cal Flex­ing Stress–from wind.
4. Impact Stress–from fly­ing objects, hail, baseballs.
5. Twist­ing Stress–from build­ing or win­dow frame sag­ging or settling.

The first type, ther­mal stress, is the only one which film may affect. The use of win­dow films will increase the ther­mal stress on sun­lit glass. How­ever, there are also other fac­tors which will increase ther­mal stress such as: par­tial shad­ing of win­dows from over­hangs, tightly fit­ting drapes or blinds, signs or decals on win­dows, heat­ing and cool­ing vents directed at glass. In addi­tion, dif­fer­ent types of glass (annealed ver­sus tem­pered, clear ver­sus tinted) have dif­fer­ent solar absorp­tion rates and will with­stand dif­fer­ent degrees of ther­mal stress.

The win­dow film man­u­fac­tur­ers have rec­om­mended film-to-glass tables for use by factory-trained dealer installers. If a con­sumer is ever in doubt, he/she should request a copy of such guide­lines. Listed are some glass types or con­di­tions where the use of a solar con­trol (not clear safety) type of win­dow film is not rec­om­mended with­out extreme caution.

• Sin­gle pane glass larger than 100 square feet.
• Dou­ble pane glass larger than 40 square feet.
• Clear glass thicker than 3/8 inch.
• Tinted glass thicker than 1/4 inch.
• Win­dow fram­ing sys­tems of con­crete, solid alu­minum, or solid steel.
• Glass where sealant or glaz­ing com­pound has hardened.
• Vis­i­bly chipped, cracked or oth­er­wise dam­aged glass.
• Reflec­tive, wired, tex­tured, or pat­terned glass.
• Triple pane glass.
• Lam­i­nated glass windows