Sunrise Classic vs. Jeld Wen w4500
I stumbled on your site, and thank you for all the helpful information. I'm comparing the Sunrise brand to the Jeld-Wen w2500, which are aluminum clad with a pine interior. I found these at Menards site and have the following performance numbers.
Solar Heat Gain Coefficient: 0.29, U-value: 0.29, Air Leakage (AL) Rating: 0.1, Visible Light VT Rating: 0.56
The Jeld-Wen w4500 has the following performance numbers.
Solar Heat Gain Coefficient: 0.47 , U-value: 0.3, Air Leakage (AL) Rating: 0.3, Visible Light VT Rating: 0.57
The Sunrise has a .30 SHGC, U-value: .28, Visible Light VT Rating .59, and .09 Air Leakage (AL) Rating:
It seems like the w4500 from Jeld Wen is pretty close to the Sunrise Classic except for the air leakage rating. Why is this?
David - Homeowner - October 15, 2016
Website Editor's Answer
David, although it is important to look at performance data, it can be a bit misleading. One reason is that the tests are done on so many different glass, grid, fills, and size variations of the windows. It can be hard to make the apples to apples comparison.
Comparing brands is important and I'll say that Sunrise has the considerably better reputation than Jeld Wen. The air leakage is an important number and clearly Sunrise makes the tighter window in this regard. The Sunrise Classic is the much better window than the Jeld Wen w4500 in my estimation.
Editor Jim R. - October 17, 2016