[Greenbuilding] apples, oranges, and u values

[natural building]

Hi John,

I've recently been dipping my toes into the murky water of high-performance windows - particularly as related to Passive House - and notice that I often come across comparisons between double-glazed LowE, and Triple. What I am wondering is whether the triple-glazed units also benefit from lowE coating in circumstances where SHG is desirable?

If the triple-glazed has a LowE coating, in your experience, what type works better (soft or hard) and on which surface (2,3,4 or 5 or a combination)?

For general info, Fibreglass frames appear to be better than Vinyl mainly because they expands and contracts at almost the same rate as the glass, therefore there is much less chance of separation between surfaces.

Cheers,
Steve
Victoria, BC.

On 2012-04-12, at 10:16 AM, John Straube wrote:

> Why not get fiberglass triples? $35 to 40 per sf for residential size and quantity?  PVC is not that stiff or durable and moves a lot. Not horrible but FG is better. Thermotech Inline Accurate Dorwin etc. 
> Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alan Abrams <alan at abramsdesignbuild.com>
> Sender: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
> Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:06:40 
> To: Green Building<greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Reply-To: Green Building <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] apples, oranges, and u values
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