Today, the operation of homes and offices are responsible for 52% of all energy used and all greenhouse gas emissions produced worldwide (compared to only 9% for cars and light trucks) based on Energy Information Administration (EIA) worldwide energy tables.

Over one-third of building operations (38%) are also used for heating and cooling – and within these structures – windows are the biggest single source of heating and cooling energy loss. As much as 40% of home and office energy (and its cost) literally goes out the window. Beyond the cost alone, this wasted energy results in over 250 million tons of atmospheric emissions per year according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Conclusion: Windows are huge energy-wasters and today, as in the past, windows represent the single largest opportunity for structural energy-efficiency improvement.

Both homeowners and manufacturers alike have long been aware of basic window inefficiencies. Standing near a single pane window on a frigid winter day is all it takes to know that outside cold is radiating inside and vice versa for excess heat on a hot summer day.

Better window technology and improved performance first began with the addition of a second pane of glass to keep Old Man Winter and Mother Nature at bay. (Two are better than one, right?) Certainly true, but today, few know that dual-pane technology was first patented back in 1865 – while Abraham Lincoln was president.

Since then, even though numerous technologies have been added – such as triple panes, new framing techniques, inert gases sealed inside and hi-tech surface films – windows are still the biggest energy losers and resulting money wasters in our homes and offices.

So, how do we know this? By comparing R-Values, a measure of thermal resistance used to compare insulating values. Simply put, the higher the R-value of a given material, the better its insulating properties – and in window-terms, a higher R-Value defines which window will better retain heat on cold days or cooling in hot weather.

Today, there is a great deal of focus on R-Value performance and industry efforts to improve overall energy-efficiencies. However, while great strides have been made in bettering wall and ceiling insulating properties – with walls now ranging from R-13 to R-19 and ceilings R-38 to R-60 – most windows today still are in the incredibly dismal R-1 to R-3 range.

Even the highly regarded “Energy-Star®” rating for good energy-efficient windows is still only in the R-3 range.

But serious help is on the way. A little over a year ago, a series of new windows were introduced nationally with super R-Values ranging between R-5 to an unbelievable R-11. The company is Serious Windows (www.SeriousWindows.com), and its top-of-the-line R-11 model offers performance that is up to four times higher than other major brands and 400% better than Energy Star requirements. The result? Dramatically reduced energy use, lower utility bills and a very impressive fast payback.

This new technology – achieved by re-thinking and combining nine key components (from framing to inner-suspended films) – and the resulting extreme energy efficiency and cost savings has been so significant that Serious Windows has just opened two new manufacturing facilities to meet steadily increasing consumer demand for its high-performance products. It is worth noting that, during a bad economic climate, the two manufacturing facilities added were actually previously closed factories that were re-opened and, in turn, also now provide hundreds of new jobs in both Illinois and Pennsylvania. In April, Vice President Joe Biden and numerous other political dignitaries attended the re-opening of Serious Window’s most recently acquired manufacturing plant in Chicago, the company’s fourth plant in all.

So what have we learned? Serious energy-efficiency is now available with new Serious Window technology. Today, savvy educated consumers ask window sales people about R-Values and they make informed decisions on what will work best for their home or office – and they are not being misled with conflicting statistics, such as confusing negative U-Values. It’s all about R-Value and what they will do for you. So ask.

“Super-efficient R-5 to R-11 windows can reduce energy costs up to 40%, resulting in a 5% savings in national energy use”, notes Serious Windows CEO, Kevin Surace. “This is equivalent to 100 million people driving a Toyota Prius instead of their older car.”

Compared to 1865 and the introduction of simple dual-pane technology, today’s true high-performance windows are a long-needed, no-nonsense solution to soaring energy costs and ecological concerns.

After 144 more years of still hot and cold, energy-wasting, money-draining windows – it would even make old “Honest Abe” proud. Honest.