Here’s another Eichler remodel, this time by Building Lab, and Oakland-based design-build firm. This particular Eichler home doesn’t have the usual atrium, but the walls of windows let ample light inside and give the owners the perfect view of their expertly landscaped yard. What do you think of this remodel? Let us know in the comments below.
The window film industry is progressing forward to release of some truly remarkable products. Window films that have been talked about and hoped for, are finally coming to the market. However, I do have some pointed remarks in regards to the way manufacturers seem to market their new products.
Most notably this blog post from last year on the Vista window film blog. When I first saw this post I thought nothing of it, but after running across it a few times on the interwebs (while mindless searching as I have the habit to do), I couldn’t help but feel it had a distorted spin in order to overshadow 3M’s prestige 70 window film. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate what Vista is doing with it’s blog, but the facts are far too skewed to provide an accurate and fair assessment for each product. Vista obviously published the article with the intent to out sell 3M, but I feel in reality it hurts both brands.
Let me explain. If you are going to compare products, both products need to be designed to accomplish the same goal. For example, a Land Rover and a Mercedes S-Class are both brilliant vehicles. While it’s true that they are both luxury vehicles, the reality is that one is a well designed off road vehicle, built to drive over or through any kind of terrain. (Which, by the way, it does quite well, just ask Top Gear. Watch the British version not the Amercian, its horrible.) The other is a top-of-the-line luxury commuter vehicle, designed to offer the most comfortable and smoothest ride on freeways and city streets.
Yes, both are without a doubt, luxury vehicles, but they are obviously designed for entirely different purposes. To be fair, Vista’s blog post does point that both the 3M prestige 70 and EnerLogic 70 have the same visible light transmission. So what? EnerLogic is designed to be a Low-E film, reflect heat and retain heat. This is not a good thing in all circumstances. In reality I believe, in my humble opinion, Vista picked 3M prestige 70 for a comparison because of the high amount of search traffic generated for 3M prestige 70. It was keyword targeted for search engine optimization.
What I think would have been more accurate and less of a marketing spin, would have been to compare EnerLogic 70 to 3M’s only Low-E film on the market right now, 3M Amber 35 Low-E. The point still would have been clear. Straight to the Point: Vista currently has a better and much more optical clear Low-E window film solution.
Why don’t we do a clear apples to apples comparison of both 3M’s and Vista’s spectrally select window products lines. For those of you who are not in the window film industry “spectrally select” basically means high visible light transmission, hardly any visible reduction in light. Below is a chart for straight across the board comparison. I’m not even going to bother looking at infrared light rejection or on angle performance, don’t want to open that can of worms.
This is simple comparison using ⅛” clear single pane glass.
| 3M Prestige 70 | Vista Spectra Select 70 (VS70) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Visible Light Transmitted (%) | 70% | 70% | |
| Total Solar Energy Rejected (%) | 49% | 52% | |
| Solar Heat Gain Coefficient | 0.44* | 0.48* | |
| Ultraviolet Rejected (%) | 99.9% | 99.9% | |
| Glare Reduction (%) | 22% | 22% | |
| Visible Light Reflected Interior(%) | 9% | 8% | |
| Visible Light Reflected Exterior(%) | 9% | 8% | |
| Winter U-Value | 1.054* | 1.003* |
* This information was gathered from the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC). Here is 3M Prestige 70 Ratings and Vista V70 Ratings documents.
One important topic not discussed in the Vista blog post was the materials and manufacturing process used to produce each of these window film products. When comparing the 3M Prestige 70 versus Vista Spectra Select V70 they both used different core materials to produce the window film. Vista Spectra Select V70 uses a sputtered silver in the manufacturing process whereas the 3M Prestige 70 is made with no metals at all. Having a window film with no metals in the material is beneficial because these metals are susceptible to corrosion in some coastal environments like the San Francisco Bay Area. This difference may even dictate the way window film is installed for your project, which may require edge sealing of the window film which may be undesirable. 3M uses the term “nanotechnology” when describing the manufacturing process to create 3M Prestige 70. They uses hundreds of layers of “nanotechnology” to create a window film that performs just like a standard metalized window film, such as Vista’s V70.
Both theses films are amazing when comparing to just a short time ago when most window films had to be tinted dark and reduce vasts amount of the visible light to be as effectives as these high visible light transmission today.
Well, there you have it a straight across comparison of each manufacturer’s similar products. Isn’t that better? Much more clear apple to apples comparison for consumers.
This is just our opinion on the matter. Whats yours? Let us know in the comments.
Image Capture from Alex Cornell Youtube Video
Most of you have probably already seen or heard of Amazon’s plans to use flying drones to deliver packages, unless you’ve been living under a rock. While some have claimed its fake here is confirmation its real and its happening. Personally, I heard about this and have been thinking it over for since.
Its sounds absolutely amazing. Just think: within hours of placing an order, a flying robot will land at your door step and deliver a monthly shipment of toiletries. Many say this won’t work, but there is strong evidence that it will. I tend to agree, and why not? I’m sure there will be many hurdles, but those will be worked out over time. While I’m sure they will set up flight paths away from populated areas, it does bring up the question of who will have the right away when it comes to landing on sidewalks. Bad news for people who like to text and walk! What about malfunctions, drones just falling out of the sky? That’s bad news.
I think this idea won’t escape my mind because it sounds so crazy, yet it’s so close to a reality. I keep having thoughts of being hunted down in a dark alley by a rogue drone for jaywalking. Eventually we won’t even be able to flick a booger without something seeing it. Check out this artist depiction of what the future will be like with semi-autonomous drones in the skies of San Francisco.
Another question is: what about thieves? I can’t imagine that some less scrupulous folks of San Francisco won’t find a way to take advantage of this. It could be an entire pirate operation, “Drone Pirates”. These drones will probably be pretty easy to track in the sky with those yellow boxes hanging on the bottom. Thieves could just follow their paths and steal the contents, or the entire drone for that matter.
I was thinking of ways how everyday business could use their very own drones. Surprisingly a number of ways came to mind for our window tinting operation. Instead of going up and down elevators in some of the taller buildings of San Francisco, we could just deploy our drone to retrieve it for us. Need a window film sample ASAP delivered to an interior designer for an urgent project? No problem, “release the drones”, be there in an hour. Well maybe someday.
This may well be the future so, look out UPS and Fedex. By the way, Fedex thinks this is hilarious.
Pamela Lin discovered this Eichler home in Sunnyvale, CA and decided to take on the task of redesigning the home herself. Her efforts were so successful, she ended up starting her own interior design firm. Check out her work and let us know what you think of it in the comments below. You can see more of her work here.
If fiberglass is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of insulation, it’s time to expand your horizons. There are so many eco-friendly choices out there for this all important tool for energy conservation and it’s great to find a single resource full of options. Check out this article from Houzz.com and let us know what you think.
