Choosing a build-up
Find the best configuration for you.
A plain-English guide to choosing an insulated glass build-up: which ARG configuration suits which application, what U-value, solar factor and light transmission actually mean and the Saint-Gobain glasses that go into each.
What ARG makes
The insulated build-ups, by application.
Almost every configuration question arrives the same way: someone has a window schedule and a budget, and needs to know which build-up to write against it. The useful order is: what is the opening doing, what is the climate doing to it and only then which panes go in the unit.
The baseline unit: two clear panes with an air-filled cavity, and the usual starting point for a quote.
Ask about this build-upThe same clear panes, with argon rather than air filling the cavity. Only the fill changes.
Ask about this build-upBrings a Saint-Gobain hard-coated pane, a coater, into the unit alongside an argon fill. The coated glass is the layer the one-month conversion rule applies to.
Ask about this build-upThe four-layer build-up: a coated pane and a clear pane on the outside, the air-filled cavity, then a clear inner pane. Ask for it by name.
Ask about this build-upThese are ARG’s build-ups. If what you need is not listed, ask, because “not on the page” is not the same as “not made”.
What the three numbers actually mean
Every glazing specification eventually comes down to three properties, and they are usually quoted as bare numbers with no explanation of which direction is better.
- U-value: how readily heat crosses the unit. Lower means the glass loses or gains less heat, which is what an air-conditioned building is paying for.
- Solar factor (also written SHGC, the solar heat gain coefficient): how much of the sun’s heat gets through. Lower means a cooler room behind a sunlit facade; too low on a north face and you have spent money on nothing.
- Light transmission (VLT): how much daylight gets through. Higher means a brighter room, and it usually pulls in the opposite direction to the solar factor. Choosing glass is mostly choosing where to sit between those two.
We do not print those numbers on this site. They belong to the glass maker and are published per product on the glass maker’s own datasheets, which is exactly what the Saint-Gobain tool above is for and why we point you at theirs rather than reproducing figures from memory.
Which Saint-Gobain glass goes into the unit
A build-up above names its layers generically: a coater or a clear. In practice each is a specific Saint-Gobain product, and the difference between them is the difference between a coated performance pane and plain clear glass.
| Glass | Family | Coating |
|---|---|---|
| SKN series | Saint-Gobain coated glass | hard-coated Must be converted into an insulated unit within 30 days |
| PlanitHerm series | Saint-Gobain coated glass | hard-coated Must be converted into an insulated unit within 30 days |
| PlaniClear | Saint-Gobain's code name for clear glass | Not a coated product |
Constraint Hard-coated glass can only be used in an insulated unit and must be converted within 30 days, or the glass is damaged. It is the single most expensive thing to learn late: coated glass and unit fabrication want to be one job, not two purchases separated by a wait.
Still not sure? That is what we are for.
The configurator computes properly. What it cannot do is tell you what ARG can actually make to your sizes, in your timeline, at your budget. Send the elevation or the window schedule and we come back with a build-up and a price against it.