Hello everyone, I find myself in a similar situation, needing to bring my window glass up to WUI (Wildland-Urban Interface) standards for city compliance. I'm wondering if anyone has explored alternative methods to achieve this standard, such as using specialized films or any other relatively straightforward options. Your insights and experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your assistance. Best Regards Kanth

remakr, Actually, Loewen and the higher-end Jeld-Wen manufacturers use the same glazing system...also the same one used by Andersen, Marvin, and many other window manufacturers. It does not include SuperSpacer. As you and Mike were discussing, web sites are primarily advertising and often give little useful information. This is unfortunate, but consider that as a general rule it is the marketing folks rather than product development or QA folks that "own" the website and whatever literature that the company distributes. Concerning independent lab results, well statistics can often be interpreted from different angles...it doesn't make them wrong, but it can be misleading without ever saying anything incorrect. Case in point...The folks at EdgeTech who make SuperSpacer have an absolutely amazing marketing department. They have quite literally introduced the concept of spacers to the general populace and in so doing have made many people believe that their product is so inherently superior to anything else on the market that a consumer would be foolish to consider any other option. Yet, the major manufacturers haven't jumped on the superspacer bandwagon...one might ask why not if it is so obviously superior? Well, one recent advertisement in an industry publication showed the results of a third-party P1 testing. The P1 test involves dropping samples of the IGU into a chamber with intense environmental conditions including heavy doses of UV light and 100% humidity levels. The idea is simply to see when the IGU fails. Some folks like to equate one week in a P1 chamber to one year real life in the field, but again, that is primarily marketing folks. Product development folks prefer to think of one week ina P1 chamber as - one week ina P1 chamber. So, the edgetech ad came out touting that superspacer did 80 weeks in the P1 without failure...it also showed the system that is used by Loewen, Andersen, Marvin, etc as "40+" weeks in the chamber. The ad didn't state exactly what "40+" meant though...in fact, the "other" system also stayed in the chamber for 80 weeks. Did the edgetech ad lie? Nope, it was quite truthful...was it misleading? Absolutely. Understand that I am not in any way slamming superspacer or edgetech...I am just saying that they have an amazing marketing concept and that it works really really well with consumers who are doing in depth research on their new windows. Which is the whole point of marketing. Which again takes us back to the websites that are also designed by marketing folks to draw consumers in...I do think that some companies are starting to understand the power of the internet and are making changes that affect how people are viewing their products, but I agree 100% that many web sites have little useful information. And enough rambling...have a great day!

Thank you! Here's the response we got from the manufacturer...along with a PDF that is well over 5 years old. Please see the attachment. This will explain why they are seeing the haze with in the IGU's. I just got off of the phone with my Sales manager and QC manager and there is nothing we can do to remove this. It's what happens to the glass once it is coated. The haziness goes away when the sunlight shifts and The awning is apparently the cause. This is all explained in the document. Call me if you have any other questions. (We do not have an awning) The following is the information contained in the PDF... Pilkington North America, Inc. 811 Madison Avenue, Toledo, Ohio 43604-5684 Telephone 800 221 0444 Fax 419 247 451 Technical Bulletin ATS-137-4 2013-01-15 NEW IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPEARANCE OF INSTALLED Pilkington Energy Advantage™ Low-E Glass Pilkington Energy Advantage™ is made of an extremely fine polycrystalline hard material that cannot be seen under most lighting and viewing conditions. It is possible to discern the presence of the coating under certain lighting conditions, such as when bright sunlight shines directly onto partly shaded, coated glass and there is deep shade on both sides of the glass. P a g e 2 Using extreme lighting conditions for the reflected images of a typical window, the residual haze of the older (2010 and earlier) product can be seen in the left hand IG unit of the following photo. A studio spotlight simulates direct sunlight (with the same set-up as in the photo above), and eliminating (with black velvet) the distracting transmitted and reflected images of a typical window, the residual haze of the older (2010 and earlier) product can be seen in the left hand IG unit of the following photo. The IG unit on the right hand side of the original photo below barely shows the miniscule amount of haze that can be found in 2011 production of 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 mm thick Pilkington Energy Advantage™. Pilkington Energy Advantage™ pyrolytic coatings are made by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, creating a hard polycrystalline layer of tin oxide over color suppression underlayers. In an electron microscope picture, the polycrystalline structure of the surface of the tin oxide top coat can be seen as a layer of closely packed grains. Daylight can easily pass, with less than 1% scattering, through this coating because each grain is actually smaller than the wavelength of visible light. The illustration below shows the surface of the coating magnified 20,000 times. P a g e 3 Fig.1. Typical grain structure, magnified 20,000 times. The extremely small size of the grains makes them invisible in most lighting conditions. The following electron microscope image shows a cross-section through the Pilkington Energy Advantage™ coating. The polycrystalline nature of the coating contrasts with the non-crystalline ‘super-cooled liquid’ nature of the solid glass underneath the coating. Fig.2. Cross-section showing coating uniformity, magnified 50,000 times. ← Air ← Low-E Coating ← Glass P a g e 4 It is possible to discern the presence of the coating under certain lighting conditions, such as when bright sunlight shines directly onto partly shaded, Low-E coated glass and there is deep shade on both sides of the glass. When looking out through the glass towards a deeply shaded background, the short wavelength component (blue) of the sunlight appears slightly scattered. This gives the coating a uniform, very faint blue appearance visible in the sunlit area. Longer wavelength red light is less scattered. In the 2003 photo below the haze was made more noticeable by the complete lack of any visible haze in any contrasting glass shaded areas, such as in the diagonal shadow on the glass. Since this product was first made in 1988 there have been continual manufacturing improvements to its properties. The coating was first made thicker to further lower the emissivity by about 33% from its initial value. At the same time the initial haze of just over 1% was cut in half. Recent (2010) developments have cut this haze value in half again. It is now reduced to a level where it is difficult to perceive under typical installation conditions. In conjunction with significantly reduced haze, its once noticeable blue tint has been eliminated. This results in the final coating being even less perceptible to the human eye. Haze only becomes visible when its brightness is significant relative to that of the transmitted and reflected images viewed in the glass at the same time. The worst case is when 0.5% of the sun’s light (say 10,000 lumens) = 50 lumens, is scattered if the sun is shining through the glass, almost directly into the viewer’s eye. This could be easily noticed when compared to the dim light coming from a deeply shaded area, say about 1/1000 as bright as sunlight or 10 lumens. It should be noted that the light scattering (haze) from normal dirt, on an average window before cleaning, is around 1% to 2%, so haze from dirt is far more visible than from the coating, even in the worst case lighting condition described above. Haze is only visible when direct sunlight shines on the glass. With typical lighting on most Low-E coated windows, and for the greater part of the day, there is no haze visible. The following photo is an example with no visible haze, even in the sunlit Pilkington Energy Advantage™ Low-E Glass (pre 2011 production), because there is no deep shade beyond the glass. P a g e 5 Before a light of low-e coated glass is glazed into a frame, sunlight, or a bright light, shining directly onto the glass cut edge can internally reflect within the body of the glass and produce a series of faint parallel lines a few inches from the glass edge where some reflected light is scattered by the coating. The photo below shows these lines. They are more visible on the left hand side of the glass where there is a dark background behind the glass. This effect completely disappears when the glass edges are shaded by being glazed into a normal sash or frame. Fig.3. Temporary or Transient Lines caused by sunlight on an exposed glass edge P a g e 6 An alternate way to achieve the very high thermal insulation provided by the pyrolytic ‘hard’ Low-E coating in a double glazed unit, is to use a ‘soft’ sputtered coating produced off-line in a vacuum chamber. Such coatings must be protected from humidity by being sealed into an IG unit. The sputtered coating is typically removed or ground off at the perimeter to allow effective insulating glass sealant adhesion. Sputter coatings usually have some reflected color as seen in the left hand glass (1). Sputter coat IG reflected color of a grey sky. The same sky reflected in adjacent clear glass IG Viewed in transmission, in the photo below, the top IG unit (1) is sputter coated low-e, the lower left unit (2) is Pilkington Energy Advantage™, and the lower right IG unit (3) is clear glass with no low-e. (1) (2) (3) P a g e 7 The use of three lites of plain glass in a triple glazed unit can also give insulation values similar to a double glazed unit with a low-e coating. But this involves a thicker and heavier window unit, with increased reflectivity, and more distortion in the reflected images when weather changes cause greater expansion and contraction of the wider total air space. There is an increased risk of breakage with improperly balanced air spaces, compared to sealed double glazing. The information contained in this bulletin is offered for assistance in the application of Pilkington North America Inc. flat glass products, but IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Actual performance may vary in particular applications.

Any glass shop should be able to provide you with tempered glass in the required sizes. Not cheap, unfortunately. I'd check carefully with the inspector about what exactly is required and whether the work you are doing triggers a need for current code compliance on the windows you are working on. The IRC requires tempered glass in only a couple of specific places unless you are in a coastal/hurricane zone.