The $29.00 per Square Foot Low-e

Following my blog, you know we recently moved to our house in the mountains of New Hampshire. It is a 65 year old house that has the original wood windows. In keeping with the style of the house we wanted to put in new wooden windows. I called the local distributor of a major wood window manufacturer. A salesperson came to the house, measured and promised a quote. Since he didn't recognize me (obviously he hadn't read US Glass, shame on him), I didn't tell him about my knowledge of glass. The quote came in. To make a long story short, as a consumer I was quoted $29.00 a square foot add-on for hard-coat low-e with argon. Let's look for a new quote.

Now, why is this a story? At $250.00 a window, and thirty windows in the house, low-e with argon would never pay for itself. The glass industry should have a mission to install low-e in all new and total replacement jobs. Come on guys...sure I will get other quotes, but the average person would not order low-e, the invisible magic energy saver. Where are the floaters who sell this manufacturer directly? Don't they work with the distributors to encourage use of low-e? At $29, do they realize they are not selling low-e? Here's a tip for every float glass sales force...look at your customer's customer...see what low-e is selling for, and encourage your customers to make a fair profit, but we all know that $29 is just plain stupid.