Due to the damage that hail causes to aluminum siding, the residential building trend has been to the use of vinyl siding˳ It has become more and more difficult, if not impossible to even purchase aluminum siding˳ Most of the aluminum siding manufacturers have gone out of business or re-tooled to produce vinyl siding˳ At first sight, this seems to be a great trend that could eliminate siding damage insurance claims˳
Due to the cost of energy to heat and cool your home, the residential building trend is to install Low-E reflective windows in all new construction˳ Because of the recent government energy credit, the residential building trend is to remove existing windows and install new or replacement windows which are also Low-E reflective˳ What Low-E technology does is reflect heat away from cold˳ Simply, in the winter it keeps the heat in and in the summer it keeps the heat out˳
You may ask, “What does this have to do with my vinyl siding melting?” Across the country there have been mysterious occurrences of vinyl siding distorting, warping and even melting with seemingly no explanation at all˳ In fact there have been cases reported in Connecticut, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Washington˳ If this is happening to you, you may possibly be experiencing is VSMS, Vinyl Siding Melting Syndrome or as Owens Corning calls it, Reflective Distortion˳ Reflective distortion can happen when the sun reaches the perfect angle to deflect off of a Low-E glass window, being magnified by the reflection to a point where the heat produced exceeds the distortion / melting point of vinyl siding˳ This distortion point is listed by the manufacturers as the heat deflecting temperature˳ This heat deflecting point is generally around 160 – 165 degrees Fahrenheit˳ Although there have been cases of siding distortion from the sun reflecting off of windows that are not Low-E, it does seem to be more prevalent with Low-E glass˳ Since the vertical angle of the sun to the earth changes month by month and the sun moves horizontally across the sky minute by minute, this phenomena has a very short window of opportunity to occur˳
The conditions can only be perfect on a single window pane for approximately 1 – 1˳5 hrs per day for between 20 – 30 days per year depending on the size of the window, trees, clouds, etc˳ Unfortunately, this reflection can come from your own or even your neighbor’s windows˳ There are other factors that may contribute to this heat gain˳ If the home was built using foil faced exterior sheathing or an interior Visqueen vapor barrier˳ The foil faced sheathing can intensify the heat being gained and the Visqueen would prevent the heat from escaping back into the home˳ At this point the window and siding manufacturers are at odds as to who is fault it is˳ Neither is taking any blame but both seem to be working on a solution˳
There are also some issues as to who would be responsible for the damage or the cost to stop it from happening˳ Could you be responsible to replace your neighbors siding or would you have to purchase new windows or awnings if your windows melt their siding? Since this is an ongoing occurrence rather than a onetime event, would the damage be covered by your insurance policy or would you have to pay for the siding replacement? Since this is relatively a new phenomenon, no one has the answers yet˳ For now keep an eye on your siding˳ If you have no problems but your neighbor puts in new windows, start watching your siding again˳ Now, if you see that your siding has begun to distort, warp or melt you at least know what might be causing it and the mystery can be solved˳
Source by https://ezinearticles˳com/?Low-E-or-Window-Low-E&id=5675117
