Euroline Windows CEO Davyd Funk joins Green Builder Media CEO Sara Gutterman to discuss the European tilt-and-turn uPVC windows installed at VISION House Mariposa Meadows. He covers reinforcement without steel, uPVC recyclability, Passive House certification and the roughly seven-year energy payback on high performance glazing.
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Sara Gutterman: I.
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Sara Gutterman: Am here today with David Funk, CEO of your line windows. We are so happy to have the opportunity to work with your line windows and showcase your beautiful European tilted turnstile windows and doors in our vision house at Mariposa Meadows. So thank you so much for participating in that. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on innovations that are happening and advancements in the window and door space in the category in general.
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Davyd Funk: Primarily, we're into uPVC, and finding ways to make those windows exceptionally large means you need reinforcement. And traditionally the industry is look to steal to provide that. It's just not really great at providing a thermally high performing window when you add steel to it. So it's all sorts of plastics and, you know, carbon reinforced products that are being added to windows.
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Davyd Funk: Now that we're seeing coming out of Europe, that's where we're spending a lot of our time. How can we reinforce uPVC to make really large openings? That's what architects are designing into houses, and that's what I want to try and provide.
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Sara Gutterman: YouTube is different, and we're starting to see really innovative ways to recycle plastics into like windows and decking and other composite materials. So can you talk a little bit about the sustainability attributes of uPVC?
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Davyd Funk: Sure. Well, uPVC itself is recyclable as long as you don't combine it with other products that make it difficult to sort. So I think part of it is, can you find a way to reinforce without embedding the reinforcement and sort of like a hidden way? So I'll give you an example. I mean, one of the manufacturers that we're working with, they have actually color coded the material inside the window frames and sashes.
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Davyd Funk: So you can actually post use separated. So that's pretty important. We try to focus on what's going to happen to the product. You know post. It's it's life. Now the other side is making sure you're acquiring windows that are going to last a very long time. So our windows are guaranteed you know, for life really to us life is 25 years.
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Davyd Funk: So if something is going to be put into a house and it's going to last at least 25 years, which is not uncommon. We've been in business for almost 30 years, and we have customers that have come back to us with just looking for hardware replacement, but their windows and their frames are totally fine. So, you know, the thing with uPVC is you are trying to build it into a situation and have it stay there almost forever.
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Davyd Funk: And that, you know, in a way, yes, we're kicking the recycling can down the road, but we're certainly not trying to put products out there that have to be replaced. After ten years.
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Sara Gutterman: With energy prices rising, it makes sense to invest in sustainability upgrades in homes like high performance windows. Tell us how the numbers pencil out.
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Davyd Funk: What we see is typically on a build. If you were to input low or average performing windows next to high performing windows at about year 7 or 8 energy costs, that's when you're going to start to see a return.
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Sara Gutterman: And tell us about some of the certifications that your windows help building professionals build to, whether that's passive House or just some of those.
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Davyd Funk: Yeah, certainly. Certainly passive House is a big topic. Were members of passive House Canada, and we do have certified products in the passive House Institute's database. So that's starting to become a much bigger topic. More homes are being considered to be built to that standard, or at least very close to that standard, which is also a great offshoot.
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Davyd Funk: Right? Like if you get into the passive House discussion and they they're influenced and they make better decisions on insulation and on glazing. So that's certainly something that we see happening a fair amount. And we we are happy to get into any conversation with people around passive House. The standard how it works. We have at least one possible was consultant on staff, and we continue to educate many of our sales staff to the passive House standard.
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Davyd Funk: Right. We're all about that. I think if we can help people understand how to, like you said earlier, build a more efficient structure. We should do that.
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Sara Gutterman: At Mariposa meadows, we feature European Tilton turnstile windows by your aligned windows, and we do have just an incredible window wall door that slides back. And I will tell you that those windows are some of the most substantial and efficient and robust and heaviest in a good way. We know indoors that we've ever built with they're really quite incredible in terms of their performance as well as their esthetics.
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Sara Gutterman: But tell us why that European Tilton turnstile is desirable.
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Davyd Funk: Yeah. So I think I think it's desirable for for a couple of reasons. One is the way it locks. So a way a tilt and turn window locks and closes. There's multiple locking points all the way around. So there's like a gear all the way around that. When you close it, you hear the solid thud, but you have a seal that's then being positively locked.
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Davyd Funk: So you're getting not only the thermal performance but also air tightness. Right? Which is really important to building a high energy efficient home. So I think that's one of the reasons people are pretty keen when they learn more about tilt and turns. But the benefits also include security. So ventilation, a tilt and turn window can just be vented.
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Davyd Funk: That's the that's the tilt function. So you can tilt it with the hinge at the bottom just for ventilation. You can leave it in that position. No one from the outside can get into the house, but you can allow ventilation so you can sleep and comfort. So I think there's a number of benefits that when we get people into our showrooms and we show them the product, how it functions, that they really warm up to.
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Sara Gutterman: Can you talk a little bit about your line windows, corporate sustainability and ESG commitments?
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Davyd Funk: What we're trying to do is continue to build products that I talked about earlier, are going to last right, are going to be around for a very long time. We don't build a low end or a medium end window. We really have, I would say, a reasonably limited product array. We've been careful about who we source products from.
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Davyd Funk: So whether it's glass to even the uPVC that we use, we make sure that it's to North American standards that the lead content is appropriate, that it can handle our climate. So all of these things, I think are important, right. When you're sourcing products so you can have confidence in what you're purchasing.
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Sara Gutterman: Is there anything else that you'd like for our trade and or consumer audience to know about your online windows?
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Davyd Funk: We really see ourselves as as consultants. So when we work on projects, we're trying to share knowledge, we're trying to bring people up to speed so we can be on the same plane. And then hopefully that helps them make a good decision.