Hi Everyone. This is my first post. I have been looking for replacement casement windows. I have app. 5000 cold heat days and 1400 ac days. Located in Hays Kansas. 10 windows on the south side, 3 on the west and 6 on the north side. I currently have a mix of 10 year old pella double pane that the wood has rotted out under the cladding. Reason for needing new windows. The rest of the windows are 30 year old anderson double pane casements. I have looked at sunrise restoration,Soft-Lite and some of the Canada Fiberglass windows. My questions are: 1 If I go with a fiberglass window can the interior be gel stained and are the frames smooth or wood grained. 2 I spend more cooling the house than heating it. So should I be looking for lower shg on the south side? How low? There are some windows that have sun on them from 10am till 7pm with no shade. 3 On the northside the windows are cold. No direct sun. What is better on the north hshg with low u? 4 What have you used? How satisfied with? I do not want to spend more that $12,000. I dont know which way I will go, but I know that I will not go with wood. 5 How likely is it that any of the companies will be here for warranty after 10 Years if it is ever needed? Thanks for any help.

How much overhang do you have on the south side? Single story or multi-story?

2 story
No overhang on the south side.

Two trees give some shade for a few hours on the first floor very little on the second story.

Thanks Neal

From your 5000 heating degreeF days compared to 1400 cooling degreeF days, I would think that high solar gain windows would be desirable. However, you already answered that question by saying that your cooling costs are greater than your heating costs. Therefore, I assume that you would conclude that you need low solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) windows on the south side. It is unfortunate that you do not have an overhang or some type of shading on the south side during the summer so that you could take advantage of high SHGC in the winter. An overhang can also be helpful in extending window lifetimes. Internal shading is not as effective as external shading, but something like reflective white pull-down shades would help reduce your cooling bills if you are not already using them.

On the north side, you have limted options for solar gain, and a lower SHGC window will always be slightly lower in U-value (about 0.03 Btu/hr ft^2 degF) than the same window with high SHGC coatings.

THanks Lee

The reason that it is higher to cool than heat is that the current windows are giving me a good amount of Solar Heat Gain. Will I gain anything with low u and HSHG on the north?

Neal,

You did not say if your current windows are low-e or just clear double-pane.

I like to use RESFEN to evaluate questions on window coatings. It is a free download at http://windows.lbl.gov/software/resfen/resfen.html.

For my location in the Rocky Mountains, RESFEN provided results that showed big reductions in heatng costs with high SHGC windows on all 4 sides, but the effect of high versus low on the north side was very small. I chose low SHGC windows for the north side, figuring any solar gain was in the "shoulder season" where it didn't matter, with reduced heat losses in the winter.

I did low versus high SHGC window calculations for a lot of different areas and posted results at http://www.residentialenergylaboratory.com/window_codes.html, but these calculations assumed an overhang on the south side. I notice that for Kansas City, MO, which may be a similar climate to yours, that the predicted heating plus cooling costs were almost independent of whether high or low SHGC windows were used (at least for the windows that I selected). Again, these calculations assumed an overhang on the south side. Those calculations suggested a slight advantage to using high SHGC windows on the south side only, with low SHGC windows elsewhere. Without the overhang, it might swing to low SHGC windows on all four sides. You can download RESFEN and check for yourself.

Your biggest gains are likely to be made by figuring out how to shade the windows to reduce solar gain in the summer, with window shades if nothing else.

Lee,

I do not know if they are low -e. They are sealed double pane. Did they offer Low -e in 1978? That is how old the anderson windows are. The Pella are 10 years old.
I tried to run the resfen and I got an error so that stoped me on that. I did look at you calculations but could not see a hshg on the north compared to a lshg north.
Very good information though.
I do have blinds for all windows. They are not insulating blinds except for the sky light.
I like some of the cardinal glass packs.
LoĒ-180 (#2) / LoĒ-180 (#4) / i81 (#6) 1 inch triple pane U factor with argon .15 vt63 and Heat Gain .50
I hear that they have a new 189 coming out that will have a better vt.
I may need to have a insulated blind for the summer so that I can have the HSHG on the South.
I could have a exterior crown Molding instaled but that will not extend very far.
Thanks for any and all Ideals.
Neal

Neal,

If you compare columns 3 and 4 in Tables 4 or 5 at http://www.residentialenergylaboratory.com/window_codes.html then you will see in column 3 the heating and cooling costs with low SHGC windows on the north side and in column 4 the HVAC costs for high SHGC on the north side. All other windows are the same between these two columns (high SHGC).

The 1978 windows are probably clear windows without coatings.

Concerning the moldings, there is an overhang calculator located at http://www.susdesign.com/overhang/.

If the windows use welded edges to seal the dual panes, then I think your Anderson (Andersen??) are not Low-E.   It is difficult to tell if the edges are sealed by welding or insulated spacers while they are in the sash.  The Andersen windows that I used in the 1970's were welded and the two panes of glass were close together.  Placing a finger on each side of the glass will tell you if the two panes are closer than 5/8".

Thanks Alton
They are welded edge as I took one apart that had a seal fail.
So no low-e or gas in them.

Lee
I did not see that thanks.
Looks like $3.00 better with the LSHG however I have 61.8 on the S. 37.5 on the N. and 25.0 on the W.
I looked at the overhang site that is great info.
Neal