[Moneyguy1]

Our home here in sunny Tucson was built in 1963. (9" thick burnd adobe walls). The windows were the original single pane sliders. We went to Lowes and had a quote of $2100 to replace the 5 windows that were still the originals. The replacements are Pella double pane, low e tempered glass. Our neighbor (and friend) had a similar job done by a custom window shop and paid $6,000 for five windows. His are triple pane construction. I could not see the benefit given the difference in cost, given the rather mild Winters here. Anyone out there who can list the benefits of the far more expensive units? BTW....four of the five in both cases are the same sizes; the fifth on our case is 4 feet h x 8 feet wide; his half that width. OUrs are U factor 0.35, Solar Heat Gain Coefficient 0.29, Visible Transmittance 0.51. In addition, the south facing wall has a 36" overhang and during the summer receiving no direct sun.