Velux skylight - what type of glass ?
#1
11-18-04, 04:52 PM
Velux skylight - what type of glass ?
Velux offers two types of glass Comfort glass and ComfortPlus glass.
There's a description here: http://www.velux-america.com/static/products/glass.html
Does anybody know whether the ComfortPlus glass worth the premium price?
There's a description here: http://www.velux-america.com/static/products/glass.html
Does anybody know whether the ComfortPlus glass worth the premium price?
#2
11-19-04, 12:01 PM
Dear Mike;
In my old house, I installed my own Velux skylight with low e glass, argon filled, just like the basic comfort model your link refers to. That skylight served us well for 16 years and is still looking great with the the homes new owners.
The comfort plus model adds a sheet of laminated glass, which is harder for a thief to break through, or perhaps a rock to break through but the glass could still crack under either of those conditions.
The thicker low e coating certainly wont add much to the windows "R" factor, not so much that you would notice. When you add a skylight, and take away the R20 to R40 you might have in your roof insulation, you know you are going to be losing heat. Its just that the thing looks so great !
I think you should buy the regular version, the fancy glass would be hellishly expensive to fix if it ever got broken.
By the way, make sure you have access to clean the skylight from the outside. Pigeons love them too!
Best Regards
Adrian D.
In my old house, I installed my own Velux skylight with low e glass, argon filled, just like the basic comfort model your link refers to. That skylight served us well for 16 years and is still looking great with the the homes new owners.
The comfort plus model adds a sheet of laminated glass, which is harder for a thief to break through, or perhaps a rock to break through but the glass could still crack under either of those conditions.
The thicker low e coating certainly wont add much to the windows "R" factor, not so much that you would notice. When you add a skylight, and take away the R20 to R40 you might have in your roof insulation, you know you are going to be losing heat. Its just that the thing looks so great !
I think you should buy the regular version, the fancy glass would be hellishly expensive to fix if it ever got broken.
By the way, make sure you have access to clean the skylight from the outside. Pigeons love them too!
Best Regards
Adrian D.
#3
11-21-04, 06:10 PM
Velux
I am not sure what Velux means by a double layer LowE coating. There isn't such a thing...A softcoat LowE coating consists of multiple layers of metal and metal oxides that are microscopically thin and are virtually invisible to the eye. The working part of a softcoat LowE is a layer of silver and Loe2 means that there are two silver layers in the coating. Velux's "coater" does not make a "double layer" coating. Leave it to marketing folks to screw up the technical info!
Laminated glass in a skylight is safer than tempered. If laminated glass breaks, it stays in the frame and you don't have glass raining on your head and you don't have a hole in your roof.
In some applications, laminated is required by code.
That said, in 75% of cases tempered is probably sufficient and laminated is probably overkill.
I like the idea of laminated overhead, but it is personal preference.
Laminated glass in a skylight is safer than tempered. If laminated glass breaks, it stays in the frame and you don't have glass raining on your head and you don't have a hole in your roof.
In some applications, laminated is required by code.
That said, in 75% of cases tempered is probably sufficient and laminated is probably overkill.
I like the idea of laminated overhead, but it is personal preference.
#4
11-22-04, 05:03 PM
Thanks guys.
My primary concern is the heat loss (I'm in New England), but since the laminated glass wouldn't add much to the thermal protection (which I suspected) I'd go with the standard glass.
The $50 of the price difference would be spent on something more useful ;-)
My primary concern is the heat loss (I'm in New England), but since the laminated glass wouldn't add much to the thermal protection (which I suspected) I'd go with the standard glass.
The $50 of the price difference would be spent on something more useful ;-)
