Learn me home windows

It looks like we might be building a new house and after looking at a lot of houses I noticed some of the windows the builders used seem so cheap when you knock on them. I don't really like that, I can only imagine how inefficient those cheap windows are. One house we looked at was built by a custom home builder and when knocking on those windows it was harder than knocking on wood. They were impact resistant with energy efficiently.

So I would really like to have good windows and those seem like the ones to use. Do these make a significant difference on energy bills? What is the price difference between the standard cheap windows and these? Does this seem like a worthwhile upgrade?

We have a limited budget as is but I was thinking this might help resale value especially since we are in Florida with hurricanes and flying debris.

When we built our house, we used vinyl dual pane inert gas filled and tinted windows. You can not feel how hot it is outside through the windows. I have to walk to my front or back door and touch the glass to even get a hint of it. The morning sun comes thorough my 8' tall back windows and the only thing that comes through is light. I would STRONGLY suggest you look into getting these. They're awesome. The vinyl frame keeps them from being thermal transistors and also keeps them from condensating and forming puddles around the window frame. LOL

Another thing is go ahead and opt for a Heat Pump system. I don't know where you live, but I did it here in Texas and I have a 19 sear 4 ton unit with a variable speed indoor motor and 2 speed compressor. We do a lot of work for the local AC place and that's what the owner recommended to me. My energy bill on the whole 1904 sq ft home is $175. The builder put a regular AC system in the house at first, it was really just the outside unit. My bill was $399-425 a month. We called them on it and they changed it pronto and we haven't seen a bill over $175 yet since the change.

If you have any questions about it, I did a build thread on my house a while ago. LOL I have all the detailed info on it in that thread. Feel free to ask me anything as I JUST went through this process.

Congrats man, it's awesome to build a home!!!

Edit:

You're in Florida, helps if I read the whole thing first. Haha.

PM me man, I'd like to help you.

Check out http://www.eplans.com/ if you haven't decided on a floor plan yet. GREAT place to get ideas from. They also have a cost to build estimator on there.

Do you have a link to your build thread I would be very interested to read that.

I was just looking for it...

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/can-i-build-thread-my-house/42090/page1/

That's a pretty awesome build thread. Did you wire every room with speakers? I want to do the same thing, I already have a 1200 watt home amp to power them. Put an ipod dock somewhere centralized so it is easy to change the music if needed.

Yeah, every room has at least 2 speakers. Here's a tip I wish I would have done if I didn't have the wife complaining about every $2 box i bought. Put 4 speakers in every room, one in each corner. That way no matter how you configure your room you always have 2 front and 2 rear speakers. That's the only thing I wish I had done differently. Oh, that and adding another coaxial cable in my bedroom. When you have it framed and all the electrical roughed in, go ahead and make sure you have what you need where you might need it. IE, "Hey, that'd be a cool place for the TV to go, or there, oh well we can always move it." Make damn sure you have adequate electrical outlets and coax outlets. Run more if you have to. Most electricians will do it if you hook them up with a few extra $$ or beer or food. I did it myself because the electricians were from Dallas and had already taken off when I got home. Plus I got all the Cat6 cable and coax for next to nothing and I thought it'd be fun to use my new house like a jungle gym for a few hours.

Our house had some relatively cheap metal framed double pane gas filled windows. After about 5 years the gas had leaked out and they started getting condensation on the inside during cold weather. Also, on a sunny winter day the living room would be at least 5 degrees F higher than the rest of the house due to solar heat gain. We replaced them a few years later with ones that have vinyl frames and tinted mylar to create the separate air spaces. These ones really made a huge difference in utility costs, heat transfer and noise. I can't hear our cat yelling outside the sliding glass door unless I'm within 6 inches of the door after the replacements. This is the company we used and have been very satisfied with the windows.

Southern Vinyl Windows

Use single pane and put on plain old heat rejection tint , like dr 25 suntek . If your house is gonna get mowed down by a hurricane no biggee........... you have 2 have insurance . You need to reject heat and stop fading . Hurricanes and storms do whatever they want to .

Decent doublepane windows are really nice to have if it ever gets cold. Florida does that every now and again, right? But does is get cold often enough to justify the price difference? I dunno. What I do know is that I'd spend the bucks to go doublepane low-e just to deal with the sun. It may take some time, but you may get that price difference back by not having to run the AC as much. I also really dig how well they reduce outside noise coming inside. When we moved here, from a singlepane place to doublepane low e fancybutt glass, the difference was night and day as far as soundproofing. The other option box you want to check off is the antiburglar film. I think it's only asvailable in doublepane windows. This is something that believe it or not will keep a goblin with a baseball bat (or a hurricane with a tree branch) from getting through your windows. The glass'll break, but the film is so tough it holds everything in place. It does what it claims and is fairly impressive. All out windows have it.