Q: Just had a contractor tell me that triple glazed windows are a waste of $ in the desert southwest – – true?
A: Replacing any windows is expensive. Windows are expensive to buy and expensive to install. The full cost of installing any windows is unlikely to pay for itself with energy-bill savings, at least not for decades. However, in our home the additional cost of triple-glazed windows above the cost of double-glazed windows paid for itself (with the additional saving from triple-glazed windows above the savings from double-glazed windows) in about 5 years for a return on investment of 19%. I think something similar would be true in Texas. See Chapter 3 in Zero Carbon Home.