I was at Home Depot last weekend, wandering around aimlessly (as usual, lol) trying to figure out how to make my house less drafty before winter hits. Anyway, I got chatting with one of the guys there about windows and insulation, and he showed me this neat trick. Apparently, there's an official online tool where you can look up window brands and models to see if they're Energy Star certified or not. I had no idea this even existed!
Basically, you just go to the Energy Star website and they have a searchable database thingy. You type in the brand or model number of the window you're looking at, and it tells you right away if it's certified and how efficient it is. Honestly, I used to just trust whatever sticker was on the window at the store, but turns out some of those stickers can be kinda misleading (shocker, right?). This online tool is way more reliable.
I ended up checking a few different windows I was considering and found out one of them wasn't even certified at all—even though it looked super legit in-store. Dodged a bullet there, haha. Anyway, thought I'd share since I know I'm not the only one trying to save on heating bills this year.
Curious if anyone else has stumbled onto useful tricks or tools like this when shopping for home improvement stuff...
That's a great find—Energy Star's database is definitely handy. Another thing worth checking is the NFRC label; it gives detailed ratings on insulation and heat transfer. Ever looked into those numbers when comparing windows?
I've glanced at those NFRC labels before, but honestly found them a bit confusing at first. Did you find any particular rating (like U-factor or SHGC) especially helpful when comparing windows? Curious how others interpret those numbers...