the verdict... i went to speak to the folks at the mountain horticultural research center in asheville, nc and they gave me the info i was looking for. we did a par reading this morning at about 10. the ambient reading was 560.4 micromoles/second/metersquared. two readings from behind the glass averaged 476. this indicates about a 15% reduction in photosynthetically active radiation. while it would not be ideal to use glass like this for a large commercial operation, the gentleman i spoke to seemed confident that i could design around the 15% shading for my personal use greenhouse. i plan to use a different material for the ceiling and possibly the east/west sides. this will allow for much more light than if i were to solely use the tinted windows. i still want to build a cold frame this winter as an experiment, but i am pretty sure that this can work. the par meter provided an instantaneous reading (15 seconds). as a matter of reference, most commercial growers require an average of 15 moles of light/heat energy per day. when we did our calculations, estimating only six hours of sun, my glass would provide between 9 and 10 moles per day. this number is significantly lower than what commercial growers would look for, but i think that my greenhouse location will recieve more than 6 hours a day, even during the winter months. maybe i will have to supplement with some artificial light in the winter, i will only find that out once the greenhouse is operational. pat tea... i would suggest doing what i did and contact your local horticultural research center to do a par reading. seems that this is the only way to really know what types and amount of light are allowed to pass through your glass. the combination of the tint and your location might not be the best. i live in western nc and it is super sunny here the majority of the time, even in the winter months. we have a naturally long growing season. i don't know if the cloudier weather in the pnw would pose an issue, but that is something you might want to talk to your local researchers about. i spoke to a number of folks before i went to the research center - glass manufacturers, tinting companies, even the greenhouse companies that were referred to in a previous post- and no one really had any solid info to give me, only their personal opinions or another reference. other than getting a par reading done, the only other option seems to be building a cold frame. practically speaking, this would be the best way to experiment, it will just take a full winter to know your results. good luck with it, i hope you can use those windows. free glass rocks! thanks to everyone for your ideas and suggestions... now on to design ideas. who's got some for me?

thanks all. --probably thought I'd gone away, taking so long to answer. It just seems one "challenge" follows another. The time goes by and you try to hold things together or repair things including your body and sometimes, things just keep coming. Hopefully, I'm forgive for being long time in answering. It's been in & out of docs. for me and tonight, wife goes to hospital. I managed to get a small, very small, strip piece of the paneling off, intact. I used a blow dryer to heat it. The adhesive cement is very, very strong. the blow dryer took a long time to heat the wood--I thought it was going to scorch , before the paneling came loose, but I finally got it. That 4"x4' section took over an hour of work! There does seem to be though a magic temperature, if I can get up to it, the adhesive softens enough to let me hammer a putty knife between it and the wood, other wise--no go. the putty knife won't cut it and the piano wire I tried to use, broke. I hoped that was the piece that would give me access to what I needed to work on, but no. I'll have to remove at least, maybe two, of the full 4x8 sheets. If I destroy this Walnut, there will be no way to replace it. And I do not want to have to figure out some other way to refinish the basement--I guess I could glue sheet rock to the walls, if I glue enough shims in first. I just hope I can get the panels down. You'd think that 30+ year old glue after being so old and going through freezes and thaws would be brittle and give way, but it sure doesn't. Probably the easiest way is to pry the furring strips from the walls and try to put them back up? Because of the unevenness of the concrete walls the strips are glued on both horizontal and vertical. And to get them off, I'll have to take down the entire wall! -- ouch! Is that the only way? I did such a great job putting this stuff up, I can't even see the finishing nails I used to make certain the panels stayed attached to the strips while the glue set. Then of course, I dabbed a bit of paint, the same color of the dark, vertical seams they are in, on the nail head. they are virtually invisible. To find them, I hope a magnet will work. If I pull off the furring strips, they won't be a problem. If I try to take off the paneling, I'm not certain if I have enough room to drive them through the panels before they hit the concrete. What a job. In removing the one little piece of paneling, I learned that I'm going to have to pull an entire corner of the ceiling tile down, as well. It just gets worse and worse...or maybe I should look at it as an exciting challenge? Let's see if I can do it? --yeah, right :( Instead of using a hair-dryer to try to heat the wood, what about trying an electric iron? Think I could do that without scorching the paneling? If so, how high of heat would you set it to and what would be good to put between the bottom of the hot iron and the paneling? --I don't think laying an iron, directly on the walnut, would be very good for it. Or should I just give up and try to separate the furring strips from the wall, leaving the paneling attached. --What a nightmare it was putting those up--absolutely nothing was plumb, level. It took hours and hours to get them level and plumb. Maybe there's an expert way to get these down--it'll take at least 4 people to take a wall all in one piece, especially to not cause damage to any of the panels. Then, how do I get it back up? Is it time to throw the walnut away and put up sheet rock? Bob

The logo in the picture applies only to the tempered glass, and nothing else. It doesn't indicate who made the IG unit or who made the window itself (likely the same company, I suspect). Is there any other identifying information on the glass? Per the logo the tempered glass meets the 1978 safety glazing standard which doesn't mean that the glass was made in 1978, but the next update to the standard (as I recall) was 1984, so its likely, but not certain, that the glass was made in late 70's or early 80's. I bring that up because if it is a glass coating versus after-market film it probably hasn't been made in a long time - meaning it might be difficult to find someone who is familiar with it. Like WoW I also think that looks like an aftermarket film as well based on the pictures, and if it has been on there a really long time it could be next to impossible to remove unfortunately. I also agree with WoW that you ask the building manager or maintenance staff to see if they have any additional information on what you have there If it is an actual window coating, rather than a film, then I would say that there is nothing reasonable that you can do to remove it and if you want it gone glass replacement might be the only option.

I wouldn't dream of using gasoline! I'm worried enough about the fumes from adhesive remover -- which is why I was looking for something milder that could still do the job... I wonder why bleach would work, that makes no sense. I found out the hard way that cat urine would remove old adhesive -- when we removed the original linoleum from our 1941 kitchen, our elderly feline was quite upset by the construction and started using the exposed subfloor instead of the litter box. Every spot she went, the remaining old adhesive came up easily. However, there are distinct disadvantages to that method!!! Hmm, maybe I should try cleaning ammonia? but, again, fumes...