Choosing Windows for a Town That Hit 117°F
Wichita Falls owns one of the most famous temperature readings in Texas history: 117°F on June 28, 1980, during a summer so relentless the city’s signature bicycle race — the Hotter’N Hell Hundred — was founded to lean into the reputation. Ordinary summers still stack triple-digit days, and the sun that produces them is the single biggest load your windows place on your air conditioner. Choosing windows for this climate is a different exercise than the national advice columns assume, and it comes down to four decisions made wall by wall.
Decision One: Solar Control Beats Insulation
Northern buyers shop U-factor — how slowly heat conducts through the assembly. Here the number that pays is SHGC, the solar heat gain coefficient: the share of solar radiation the glass admits. Hot-climate Low-E coatings push SHGC down into the low 0.20s while keeping the view clear, and on a wall of west glass that difference is felt the first afternoon. U-factor still matters for January — this is a place that also ices — but when the two trade off, the Texas answer is solar control.
Decision Two: Orientation Sets the Spec
Not every wall needs the same window. West and southwest exposures take the brutal late-afternoon load — spec the lowest-SHGC package there, and consider exterior solar screens on top; they intercept heat before it ever reaches the glass, and this is solar screen country for good reason. South glass benefits from low SHGC year-round. North windows never see direct sun — a standard Low-E package is fine, and the savings funds the west wall. East takes morning sun: real, but gentler. An installer who quotes one spec for all four walls is quoting for their convenience.
Decision Three: The Frame Is Part of the Glass
An unbroken aluminum frame conducts attic-like heat straight through its own metal — the frame defeats the glass. Multi-chamber vinyl, thermally broken aluminum, or fiberglass all solve it; light exterior colors help everything survive southern sun. And because heat finds gaps, the insulated, sealed perimeter the installer builds around the unit is the final component of the “window” you are buying.
Decision Four: Believe the Sticker, Not the Adjectives
Every certified window carries an NFRC label with measured numbers — SHGC, U-factor, air leakage. “Energy package,” “summer glass” and similar phrases are marketing until the sticker confirms them. Ask every bidder for the NFRC numbers of the exact product quoted, per wall. The good ones have them memorized; the presentations change the subject to the today-only discount.