Shopping for windows can be difficult but recently I looked into a local company that sells windows and that made me look into the validity of their claims about the vinyl windows they sell.
They carry two brands of windows Champion and Milgard and this is what I found as far as reviews on these brands.
http://www.pissedconsumer.com/reviews-by-company/champion-window.html
There’s nothing worse than someone selling you something that does not work.
Let me rephrase that, Radiant Barriers are not a cost effective way of saving energy. Spray on “Radiant Barriers” are even less cost effective. Don’t take my word for it, read what the US
Department of Energy (the same folks from Energy Star) have to say about it and use the calculator they provided to estimate your potential savings with the Aluminum Foil Radiant Barrier stapled to the bottom of the rafters in addition to the “Spray On” aluminum paint under the roof deck (Yes! both applied and still not worth it).
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/ees/etsd/btric/RadiantBarrier/rb_calc.shtml
If you plug in the info for Miami Florida (same red color on the map as Phoenix) and let’s assume a 2025 sq attic with R-30 in the attic and Insulated Ducts (standard in most homes built in the last 15 years) and you will see potential savings of less than $400 in the next 6 years. These people are telling customers they will save 25% off their electric bills…let’s plug those numbers in…Well their math is correct if your bills are a consistent $20 a month. The fact is the average electric bill in Phoenix or Las Vegas is $250 a month or $3000 a year (summer bills can be $500-600 a month). So, $60 saved in a year equals 2% savings not 25%!! So how long will it take you to Recoup your $3000-4000 you pay for their services? About 50 years or so
In both the Las Vegas and Phoenix market there have been a number of companies hustling this “Glorified Paint Job” to unsuspecting homeowners. These companies sell it under the name of Texcote or Coolwall but is still an elastomeric paint with a shine to it.
They offer a “Lifetime Warranty” but that’s on the material and the manufacturer rarely even owns up to their products failure.
You see, the manufacturer “Textured Coatings of America” got on board the “Green” movement by donating some paint to some government buildings in order to get free plugs from them. They even got some government cronies to talk bad about their competition on tape.
<a href=”http://www.texcote.com/coolwall_depthofenergy_ceramics.php” target=”_blank”>SEE THE GOVERNMENT SELL OUT</a>
How’s that for getting a seal of Approval, and they even got Al Gore and the late Robert Kennedy JR all for a fee of course.
Well the worse of is that it does not last as long they say it does and they tried to bury the bad press over the name “Texcote” which became a “bad word” when they came up with the new name “Coolwall” a few years ago. See how it has fared by the virtue of these pictures and complaints from customers across the country do your research:
<a href=”http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Masterpiece-Exteriors-TEX-COTE-Textured-Coatings-Of-America-Inc/nationwide/Masterpiece-Exteriors-TEX-COTE-Textured-Coatings-Of-America-ripoff-Ha-Lifetime-warrant-129025″ target=”_blank”>ONE PROBLEM</a>
<a href=”http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/home-tex-applicators-tex-cote-textured-coating-of-america/panama-city-florida-32405-6348/home-tex-applicators-tex-cote-textured-coating-of-america-tex-cote-textured-coatings-311182″ target=”_blank”>ANOTHER PROBLEM</a>
How about the clincher; they charge you 5-10 times the price of painting your home. Yep! $12,000 to $35,000 is not uncommon as far as prices go for this stuff applied to your home depending on the size with the average price for Coolwall application is around $15,0000. The salesmen counter the outrageous cost with the promise of unrealistic Energy Savings.
Let’s see what their manufacturer says about that claim: The Percentage of cooling cost, peak cooling load, and surface temperature reductions will vary based on color chosen, geographical location, climate condition, and substrate type. Percentage of cooling cost savings are based on the DOE study. Ok, what does that mean?
Well they even provide you with a calculator on the manufacturer’s website”
Use the manufacturers calculator to see the savings in dollars below:
<a href=”http://www.texcote.com/coolwall_coolingcostcalculator.php” target=”_blank”>SEE THE SAVINGS</a>
We plugged in the numbers for a Stucco house in Las Vegas with an average monthly bill of $200 year round and 25% for the portion of the bill dedicated to cooling year round (no cooling in the Winter and early Spring right?) and the savings amounted to $32 a year. Wow! that’s a huge difference from what the Local dealer’s Website claims of up to 21.9% saving off their energy bill. Heck We plugged in an unbelievable 50% for the portion of the bill for Cooling and the savings doubled as expected to $64 a year!
So basically it’s all lies, the product is over hyped and it’s nothing more than a glorified and very expensive paint job.
A scam worthy of being included in the movie Tin Men or Glengarry Glen Ross as most of these salespeople would fit perfectly in those roles.
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