Vinyl or wood. That's all you can tell us but you want specific advice? Jeld-Wen, until recently, made three different brands of windows plus more than one line of vinyl windows but now they all bear the name of Jeld-Wen. There is nothing that anyone can say that applies to the entire line of Jeld-Wen windows except to point out that they are the largest manufacturer of windows in the world and probably offer more different kinds of window models than all of the other major manufacturers combined. Some of their window are good and some are not so good. Andersen is the only manufacturer that makes vinyl clad wood windows. They are fine if you like white windows. They are available in 4 different models that rate IMHO from excellent to poor. The excellent ones offer green and brown windows as well as white. You pretty much get what you pay for with Andersen but the price varies a lot depending on where you buy them. They also make an aluminum clad wood monumental window too expensive for most homes and various kinds of composite replacement windows. They own Eagle which makes a good extruded aluminum clad wood window that mercifully has only one model line and they offer unlimited colors and will mix sash and frame colors. Pella makes various models of out-of-date roll-formed aluminum clad wood windows. I would say they manage to combine all of the worst features available and offer truly aggravating service. They do offer blinds between the glass panes whatever that is worth. A warning: All of these windows are sold by Home Depot and if you buy from them be prepared for false delivery date promises, special truck load nonsense, and obvious ordering errors. Check the order sheet yourself. I have never had Home Depot beat the price of my favorite supplier who offers good advice, doesn't make mistakes, and tells the truth even when it hurts.

Milgards Fife Wa. operations is only 20 miles from our build. Our homes window package was substantial. Thier latest way of dealing with things after a year is to simply not return calls and fall back on thier vendor agreement to make the vendor eat it, who are seeing through this and tired of it. They (Milgard) no longer deal direct with the consumer except for large outside sales jobs. They no longer do residential installation either. They would be dealing with attorneys and bad publicity on the large jobs if they do not put a better foot forward. Our windows came with very bad anodizing. It was as if the alloy was never prepped. Holes for the casement mechanism mounts were drilled completey through the windows frame and directly through the nailing flange. Nailing flanges were specced and not delivered. Custom glass styles came scratched. When delivered No notice was given (though noted) and they weres simply left on the job site twice. Once they even lost a door in transit! Structure was damaged because of delivery guys not paying attention. Hardware was loose and missing screws on casement windows. They bocked at everything. They have been horrible with the vendor as well and hide behind thier new vendor agreements. They have eluded and hid from this for over a year. Boy how I would love to list some names and p.o. numbers!

The information provided is pretty good but a little incomplete. When speaking of efficiency and the way that the blinds effect the properties of the glass you are talking about two different aspects of energy efficiency; U-value v. Solar Heat Gain Coefficient. The blinds affect both properties. They will negatively impact the U-Value. There is little that can be done in a standard depth insulated glass unit to counter this with blinds. The issue is that you are putting a conductive material, usually aluminum, in between the glass panes and they will transfer the heat more quickly resulting in a higher U-value. You will have controllable SHGC with the addition of the blinds. What that means for you depends on climate and orientation to the sun. With the blinds closed you will have a much lower SHGC but also a much high U-value. This will result in a significant amount of heat energy transfer. Adding a hard coat LowE can help but will never be as good as the same unit without blinds.

Ah the old HD shuffle. Like I have said previously box stores typically have no one in the millwork/window depts who know what they are really doing. I would hope there order sheets would be correct as the vendors should be helping them make them but again you never know. I know this is a little strange but on the occasion that I am in HD or Lowes (only to buy exactly what I know I am getting before hand, lol) and I have a few extra minutes I like to go over to the millwork dept and make inquires about different products that I may be looking for for a HI project just to see how awful the the responses and while I cannot remember them all they are usually no even close to being correct or where to find the correct answers.