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Using Gorilla glass for home building
- biglyburrito 2y agohttps://archive.is/ysoFM https://archive.is/ysoFM
- mock-possum 2y agoAs a home owner - updating / improving my windows is a luxury I very much wish I could afford. It’s hard to imagine being able to mess with the windows unless it’s with a newly purchased empty property.
- jbjbjbjb 2y agoJudging by home owners around me it looks to be quite a popular change. As far as I can tell they're pretty much changing like for like (upvc with double glazing) without the energy efficiency upgrade. Changing from white to black frames seems to be the driving factor.
- morkalork 2y agoLiving in a suburb built in the 60s and 70s the two things I see after every sale is new windows and doors, and digging up and replacing the French drain.
- more_corn 2y agoDepending on your heating and cooling bill it could be cost-effective. The new windows are so much more energy efficient that you start to payback the insulation costs pretty quick.
- tastyfreeze 2y agoReplacing windows is actually one of the easier DIY home jobs you can do. Hell of a lot easier than building a deck that a lot of people do. They are installed after framing and meant to be removed if they break. Removing the trim inside and outside will give you access to the fasteners holding the frame in. Usually, the hardest part is finding windows that fit and match your taste.
- kirtakat 2y agoThat's true for relatively new construction, but for instance, I have a 100 year old house with stucco. Replacing my windows is a nightmare job. Whereas my back deck was a far simpler project
- kylehotchkiss 2y agoI have a stucco home, I've been doing replacement windows (I like milgard) and my stucco hasn't been touched. I have other people install them though.
- gazook89 2y agoSame here. We removed trim inside the house and it wasnt that bad, but I was just replacing the trim— not the windows. I could see that removing the windows would be a pain the ass very quickly. And it has already been done once.
- mrj 2y agoYeah, for me my windows weren't standard sizes so had to be custom built, anyhow. At that point, you might as well get installation as well. Some stucco had to be chipped back to insert the new window but it's covered by the vinyl frame. Low-e windows are amazing though.
- blodorn 2y ago100 year old windows were designed for easy maintenance and repair. Are the double hung windows? If they are, you can make sure to have storm windows on which effectively work as a double pane window. If this new glass were available, you could replace every pane in your window without removing a nail.
- drjasonharrison 2y agoI seriously doubt they would provide the glass without frames, which requires removing the moulding around the existing window.
- thathndude 2y agoMine are due to be replaced, and I’ll definitely keep my eye on this. But, if that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t be running to replace windows before end of life.
- scarecrowbob 2y agoI've replaced windows before, and I'm handy but not a professional. Depending on the construction it's not super hard to pull them out and put new ones in, it takes about 20-30 min per window.
- oblio 2y ago> As a home owner - updating / improving my windows is a luxury I very much wish I could afford. What has gone wrong in super capitalistic America that much poorer Romanians, for example, can afford average quality double glazed and triple glazed windows and Americans can't?
- onlypassingthru 2y agoLabor costs. Work in the trades can pay VERY well in the wealthier parts of the US. Plumbing, electrical, carpentry, tile journeyman can all make over six figures in the major metro areas.
- oblio 2y agoThat looks a lot like several inefficiencies: 1. Why aren't more people trying to get those jobs? 2. Why aren't locals trying to bring workers from low cost of labor areas?
- jimnotgym 2y agoSteve Jobs with a windows update? Very confusing
- drewcoo 2y agoIt stole all his ideas . . .
- jml7c5 2y agoThis is a strange article. It portrays triple and quadruple pane windows as a new development, but they've been around for years. As far as I can tell, the only development here is the use of ultra-thin glass in the interior layers. This reduces cost, size, and weight relative to normal triple/quadruple-glazed windows.
- wussboy 2y agoMy dad built a house in the late 80s with all triple-paned glass...although there were essentially three separate windows, packaged as one.
- kleiba 2y agoExcept that a cascade of windows is not what is typically referred to as triple-pane. If multiple windows were to count here, then "double-paned windows" have been around for centuries.
- rascul 2y agoLooks like actual double paned windows have been around since the 1870s, so centuries is correct.
- archi42 2y agoI feel like they're around for decades? Gorilla glass is absolutely no necessity to enable 3 or 4 panes. ChatGPT (sry, I'm becoming lazy) agrees that they're available since the 1980s. In the US adoption became more widespread in the 2000s. Here in Europe/Germany they became more popular in the 1990s already. This matches how I remember it. When we replaced our 1980s double glazed windows with triple glazed a few years ago, I could have easily gotten four-pane insulated windows as well, except for the roof-installed windows. Drawbacks of multi-pane are the increased weight and them being more opaque. (Yes, we also insulated the walls and can control humidity - just in case someone wants to point out that the window replacement alone can cause moisture/mold damage to our house :))
- eagerpace 2y agoIt says “only 20% more than energy efficient windows” but those “energy efficient windows” are usually 50% more than the average quality window. Higher quality triple pane windows exist, and they are a luxury for most homeowners. It’s great technology, but relatively few people build or upgrade their house with the long term consequences in mind for these things. There’s a reason you get a positive ROI when you fix up a kitchen or bathroom versus replacing windows which is typically viewed as maintenance. There needs to be incentives for these upgrades to be adopted by home builders.
- greggsy 2y agoMany Australian jurisdictions require the energy efficiency rating to be included with the listing, which factors in things like double glazing. Their value is absolutely recognised as something greater than maintenance in this market.
- KerrAvon 2y agoBuyers absolutely care about energy efficiency and insulation from noise, and neither can be addressed fully without upgraded windows. It's one of the first things experienced homebuyers should look at -- if the windows are 1980's single pane, I'd expect to spend least $20k in window replacement parts + labor for a large house on top of the house price.
- grendelt 2y agoIt's one of the first things buyers should look at. But they don't. They check out the kitchen cabinets, bathroom fixtures, and lovely floors and wall finishing.
- drjasonharrison 2y agoSchool district.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoHow to ruin a real estate agent's day: arrive at your showing appointment wearing a tyvek bunny suit and headlamp and immediately demand access to the crawlspace.
- shdh 2y ago> this glass is so well insulated, it actually creates warmth in his living room: It admits the radiant heat of the low winter sun but prevents conductive heat loss through the window
- joezydeco 2y agoYou mean, like a greenhouse?
- tonyarkles 2y agoWe have an older mobile home on a rural lot in the middle of nowhere, and by far one of the best quality of life improvements we’ve made to it is awnings that were designed to let the sun in during the winter but not in the summer. In the winter we keep the furnace set at about 68F there during the day (65F at night) and on good sunny days it can be -20F outside and up to 73F or 74F in the living room! In the summer without running the AC it would get up to 85-90F in there while only 70F outside… with the awnings we barely need the air conditioner most of the time. Still do on days when the outside air temperate is oppressive, but the place isn’t a greenhouse all summer!
- notmyspacetom 2y agoThere is a company called LuxWall that is producing vacuum insulated windows that act basically like a thermos. There is a tiny space between the two panes that is pulled down to a high vacuum that results in a window that only transfers heat via radiation. Conductive and convective heat transfer are essentially eliminated. This results in a window with a R value similar to a fully insulated wall. Because the full unit is so thin, they are able to replace single pane windows in old buildings and drastically cut buildings energy consumption.
- xnx 2y agoSounds cool, but also exceedingly difficult to maintain a [near] vacuum over the ~25 year life of a window.
- jajko 2y agoOne bigger hit and its gone and you will not even know it till it fogs. Even argon glass of same pressure as air can eventually leak out and be replaced by air, reducing its efficiency significantly.
- grendelt 2y agoAre these big national-brand window companies that provide "lifetime warranty" just cashing in today and hoping for the best (bankruptcy) exit strategy later when all their installs from this generation fail in a couple decades? Not installers, but companies like Pella, Window World, et al.
- SoftTalker 2y agoThey may define "lifetime" as "25 years" or limit the warranty to the original purchaser, knowing that most people don't live in one house that long, or count on the later owners not realizing that there is a warranty, or knowing when or from whom the windows were purchased.
- 2y ago
- davidw 2y agoFinally, people who live in glass houses will be able to throw stones.
- patall 2y ago[flagged]
- roarcher 2y ago> I know that the core of the article is about millimeter thick inner panes Yes, those are new. That's what the article is about. Your opening snark makes no sense in the context of the article, which you yourself admit, but you were so eager to feel superior that you posted it anyway. Corning is an American company, by the way. Feel free to explain how that makes us stupid and backwards.
- patall 2y agoYes and no. The article is about how much energy a new product saves. But only compared to what appears to be standard american windows. Because compared to a normal, 21st century european windows, it would be negligible. > Typical double-pane windows have hardly changed since their invention a century ago.
- tristor 2y agoOne of the biggest expenses I had for my previous home was replacing all the windows. It helped a lot, but unfortunately was $26k to have done properly (could have been done cheaper, but I went for the good stuff) and the net result was a $0 increase in potential sale price. When I sold the house, I only made money on the deal because of the market doubling in the time span I owned the property. Now I'm looking to buy/build again, and I will still invest in good windows because it makes such a difference on a summer day and with noise, that quality of life difference matters to me, but it seems it doesn't matter to anyone else because it's not priced in and builders don't care. Even if I buy a brand new "energy efficient" track house, it'll have shit windows. Only by building a custom house and mandating these things can I have any hope of getting it if I don't want to dump another $20k-$30k into a house after I buy it.
- kleiba 2y agoInteresting, when I lived in Europe, I observed that it was the other way around there: if your house only has double-pane windows from the 80s, that will definitely reduce your sales price quite a bit.
- jeppine 2y agoWould encourage anybody who has a historic home pre-1940s to keep their original windows and just restore them. Unless you get 4 and 6 pane windows, the energy savings are minimal. Brent Hull is a good resource on historic windows and outlines the reasons to keep them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6mAmIrN5qY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6mAmIrN5qY Plus, the original windows look significantly better and will last longer.
- downrightmike 2y agoPre 1940 homes were meant to breath. If they don't, they mold and rot
- blacksmith_tb 2y ago"[triple pane] windows saved an average of 12% on heating and 28% on cooling"[1] That said, if you haven't insulated the walls and attic, windows alone won't do much. 1: https://www.pnnl.gov/news-media/how-triple-pane-windows-stop-energy-and-money-flying-out-window https://www.pnnl.gov/news-media/how-triple-pane-windows-stop...
- drewcoo 2y agoPlease take Brent Hull with a grain o' salt if you own an old home. Anything pre-catalog is different and does not really fit a recipe. Brent is opinionated but doesn't often broadcast that he's expressing opinion instead of fact. Love Brent, though! He has a vision of old houses and pushes it.
- FuriouslyAdrift 2y agoThe building I work in has "ballistic" glass in one area that is 6 inches thick (split into three 2" sections internally) and it is soooo quiet. I wish I could get those on my house for noise abatement.
- nullc 2y ago> I wish I could get those on my house for noise abatement. You can but your wall may not be thick enough. FWIW, you can get insulated glass where the different panes are different dimensions, which alone drops noise transmission a few dB (per literature). And using thicker (but not so thick as 6 inches!) creates a lot of reduction. I replaced the windows in my home office a few years ago and speced the outer as a laminate bandwidth with all three pieces different thicknesses (and not multiples of each other). It provided a considerable noise reduction though I can't attribute the amounts to the different composition vs thickness. Finding a glass company that was willing to completely replace the frames vs wanting to just take the glass out and put a 'frame in a frame'-- bad for appearance, thermals, and acoustics-- was harder than getting the unusual setup. I totally failed to find anyone willing to backfill with SF6+Ar. :P
- jmward01 2y agoNot really on topic, sorry, but all I can think about when reading this article is the beginning of The Hudsucker Proxy.
- mrbigbob 2y agoThere is an MIT spinoff company called Aeroshield that has created a very transparent version of aerogel to be used for very energy efficient windows. From the website they plan to have products for sale in 2026. It will probably be expensive but it is interesting. https://aeroshield.tech/ https://aeroshield.tech/