Triple glazed windows have usually garnered a price tag only palatable by the top 1%.
This cost dilemma has made choosing triple pane windows seem almost painful and for this reason many in the past have chosen to stick with double glazing. The argument strongly reasoned that the extra cost for triple glazed windows had a payback of too many years with the energy saved from switching from double to triple. The upcharge just wasn’t worth it for most people.
Years ago the building industry rapidly moved from single pane to double glazed windows as an industry standard. Most homes have had “replacement windows” installed to help lower their annual heating costs. If you are unfortunate to have ever lived in a house with single pane windows, you’ll know that the difference is well worth the cost to upgrade to double pane. Now the trend in Europe is that all new construction is with triple glazed windows and people are replacing double with new triple glazed units. Europeans are at least ten years ahead of the good ol’ USA on everything regarding building efficiency and toxicity.
Enter Intus Windows. A European style triple glazed window with window values that will make your energy auditor proud and a price that sends you howling at the moon. It’s here, it’s finally here. A window company that dares to enter the US market with window quality straight from Northern Europe and with a price fit for Mainers, or anyone else worth noticing.
Intus uses glass from Austria, hardware and accessories from Germany with window options such as U-PVC, wood/wood, wood/aluminum, and aluminum. The “U” in U-PVC stands for un-plasticized. The plastics are associated with warping and cracking in typical vinyl window frames. U-PVC is more stable in severe climates and is a commonly used window frame option in Europe, meeting all of the EU manufacturing standards. If you prefer a wood frame window with a rugged exterior of aluminum, then there are many options to choose from including an option that has been Passive House Certified. They also have aluminum frame options that are thermally broken with a wide range of pricing depending on the amount of thermal break. All operable windows have three weather/air sealing points and multiple locking points that make these windows very air tight. They also offer doors with the same extraordinary European quality and multiple locking points. Their windows are all Tilt and Turn in-swing, which is common in Europe. These windows come with a 10-12 week lead time, which is worth the wait for starting pricing ranging from $30-$35 s.f. for fixed and $35-$45 s.f. for operable. If you’re interested in a quote send your window and door schedule to info@mainegreenbuilding.com or call Maine Green Building Supply at 207-780-1500.
Now for you window enthusiasts, let’s talk numbers.
DP (design pressure) 70 (A DP 50 can withstand a Level 5 Hurricane!)
dB 47 (decibel rating) What traffic?!
Air leakage 0.01 (Almost completely air tight.)
Impressive U-glass value ranging from 0.088 – 0.106 (translate to R 11.36 – 9.43)
SHGC values range from 0.25 (low gain) – 0.62 (high gain). They have a variety of SHGC.
Frame U-values are also impressive ranging from U-0.09 to 0.16.
Add this up and the U-window values range from 0.102 – 0.16. (Passive House standard is 0.14)
Hallelujah, Intus Windows are here!
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