Glass thickness is driven by wind load and size. Thicker glass will slightly reduce thermal loss due to conduction, but it is not significant. Laminated glass does not bring more insulation than monolithic.

Creating a cavity between two pieces of glass vastly improves thermal efficiency. This is because dry air is 55 times less thermally conductive than glass. With an Insulated Glazed Unit (IGU) you greatly reduce the thermal conductivity.

Adding a metallic coating inside an IGU reduces radiation (i.e. heat) losses.  There are two factors to consider:

• Low-e will reflect long infrared (heat energy) back toward the interior.
• Solar control low-e will also cut the energy coming from the sun that is prone to heating a room due to the greenhouse effect.

Argon is less thermally conductive than air, therefore, it further increases the thermal efficiency.

Larger storefronts require thick glass. Using regular clear, a noticeable greenish tint will be evident. The retail industry continues to adopt the use of ultra-clear glass to remove tint and improve light transmission, resulting in greater visibility into and out of the storefront.

Advancement in coating technology now brings museum-quality anti-reflective (AR) coatings to large storefronts. This means that customers will see inside the store instead of seeing the outside surroundings and visual clutter. A study, undertaken by Guardian Glass, showed an 18% increase in people who stopped in front of an anti-reflective coated storefront. Using a product such as Guardian Glass’ Clarity reduces the reflection to less than 1%.