What is glare?

Yesterday I went into a school, where they have a glare problem. The computers are facing the windows and so they need to cut down the glare.

Having a combination of annealed (normal), laminated and toughened glass, I suggested a reflective film, with a low reflective interior finish. This type is predominantly used in commercial offices, where they experience the same problems.

The Principal commented that they did not want anything reflective.

Reality is, that reflective films have the lowest heat absorption. Reflecting the heat minimises laminated and annealed glass breaking.

The principal also wanted a lighter film, as she felt that the sample was too dark. Knowing from my own experience, going with a lighter film would not cut down the glare sufficiently. After all, are dark sun glasses more effective than light ones to cut glare?

Should I now offer a lighter, non reflective film to get the sale or stick to my better judgement?

What is more important, the sale or being honest and give clients the information to reach their own conclusions?

I stuck to my recommendations, gave a few other schools as reference, where they had the same problem and had it fixed by using the correct films.

Thinking about this person's opening comments, she had absolutely no idea about window films, because she said she did not want any films that bubble after a while. Obviously window tinting was not her idea. Sad thing about this story is that one person's opinion will effect the whole school and their finances, because window tinting is the most cost effective long term solution.

I would suggest that they look at using blinds in this situation, because the films will never match this Principal's expectations. All they need to do now is train their students to respect school property.

Good luck!

(We may not know too much about teaching children, but have picked up a thing or two about window tinting over the years.)