How Las Vegas' Extreme Temperature Swings Affect Your Windows

Las Vegas is known for 2 things, the massive city, and the extreme heat. During the summer, it can get as hot as 110 degrees out. Not only does this affect us as people, but it also affects your home in several ways, one of those ways being the windows. The combination of direct sunlight, severe heat, and erratic temperature changes affect window performance over time. Windows can expand, warp, or even crack under excessive heat. This can affect your window’s seals, frames, energy efficiency, and your own comfort negatively.

Las Vegas Windows Face Extreme Heat

Intense summer temperatures easily expose windows to a lot of heat. The temperature difference between the outside and the much cooler inside environment is not healthy for a window. As I explained earlier, extreme temperatures can make windows crack. This happens because of the temperature differences it experiences from the outside and inside. On the outside, it withstands temperatures of anywhere between 80 to 120 degrees. While on the inside, the glass only has to deal with a nice cool 60 degrees. The result of this is that the glass on one side of the window is contracting due to cold temperatures, and the other side is trying to expand because of the heat it’s experiencing. This causes the window to stretch and bend in ways it wasn’t supposed to, resulting in cracks and possible breaks. Now, temperature differences like this alone won’t destroy a window, it has a lot more to do with other factors, however this can still be a factor as to why your windows might randomly crack, despite it possibly not being the actual reason. (U.S Department of Energy)

How Heat and Temperature Changes Can Affect Window Seals

Seals keep the insulation between panes of glass. This makes it so that your glass panes don’t get any moisture build up between each other, or even just fogging. Without the seal, or if the seal broke down and failed, your panes will no longer have any protection from the outside world, so what happens is water molecules can get through causing water build up in between those panes. This can possibly make your panes foggy, or make it look like there’s lots of moisture between the two. Now, a failed seal doesn’t entirely mean your window frame is damaged, but it does mean that the insulating argon gas has escaped, which is why water is able to get into it. This is also why you don’t see any type of moisture in between the panes if the seal hasn’t failed, because the argon gas is still in there. This doesn’t usually require a complete frame replacement, but it does require new glass. (Port of Seattle)

Solar Heat Gain Is Especially Important in Las Vegas

Solar heat gain is what happens when the sun’s radiation gets into your home, its the scale people use to measure the amount of heat your home gets purely due to that radiation. Windows and glass act as a natural magnifying glass, this makes the solar heat gain through them a lot worse, this degrades windows pretty quick because in a desert climate with little clouds, there’s nothing to stop the sun. SHGC is one of the ratings that most homeowners use to understand how much heat gets through the windows. A lower SHGC means a lot less energy and heat gets through your windows. (Energy Star)

Temperature Changes Can Affect Indoor Comfort and Energy Use

Unlike insulated walls, windows and window frames conduct heat significantly faster. This means that during the hotter months, your house will get hotter depending on how many windows you have. Inefficient, cheap windows can make it a lot more difficult to maintain a constant indoor temperature because of this, as the coolness of your home will likely get overtaken in a way by all the heat coming in from the outside. Window world only buys windows from the best manufacturers, ensuring that the windows you buy from us will be effective during not only the hotter months, but even the colder ones as well! (DoE)

Choosing Windows for the Las Vegas Climate

As a homeowner, you should consider where you live when you’re looking into buying new windows. Make sure you understand your frames and if you think there’s going to be some type of air leaks from it, to get that replaced along with the windows themselves. Now, there isn’t necessarily one best window for every home, because again, different climates matter. It also depends on your home's design, orientation and sunlight exposure. Make sure to research thoroughly before buying new windows. (Energy Star)

The responsibilities of all homeowners come with some hard decisions. One of those is the types of windows you’ll buy. Always make sure to consult a professional when buying windows, the reasons I’ve listed here make it clear that certain windows are built for certain climates. When buying windows, you can’t buy the same one for all different types of climates. You can always trust Window World, Las Vegas to buy and install quality windows for you and your home!