Epic Facility Energy Analysis for window film · proprietary

Anyone can quote a percentage. Epic proves it.

Every window film company will tell you film saves energy. Epic runs your building through its own analysis engine — your glass by elevation, your chillers and rooftop units, your rate, your climate — ranks every 3M film by what it saves, and then puts data loggers on your glass to measure it. A brochure number is a guess you pay for. This is the number you can defend.

Request your analysis Try the estimator

Epic’s own analysis engine — not a vendor calculator
Every 3M film ranked on your building
Field-verified with data loggers before you sign
A report your CFO and your utility can read

Scroll

A preview of the Epic analysis

Run your building in thirty seconds.

This is a simplified public version of the engine our Solutions Advisors run on site. Enter what you know — defaults are a 100-ton building with 5,000 sq ft of glass — and watch every 3M sun-control film re-rank for your climate and your rates. The full analysis adds the quoted price for your actual glass, the payback, and measured results from your own windows.

What this estimator does

It takes your building — glass by elevation, cooling equipment, electricity rate, climate — and shows how many dollars of energy each 3M film would save you a year, ranked best to worst for your building. The savings are energy only.

What it does not do

There are no film prices, installation rates or payback periods in this tool. Installed cost depends on your actual glass — pane sizes, access, height, film series — so it is quoted on site, never guessed online. Payback comes from the quoted price and the measured savings, in the full Epic analysis.

Epic Facility Energy Analysis · proprietary estimator · epiccos.com

Your building today—kWh of cooling a year · — · about — of it driven by sun through the glass

Every 3M film, ranked for this building — all — sun-control films, highest heat rejection and savings first

Ranked best return first — these are energy savings, not payback. Within a series the installed cost is similar, so the order above is also the payback order; the reflective and darker films lead because they reject the most heat, while a lighter film lower on the list may still be the right call when daylight and appearance matter. No film or installation pricing is included here — installed cost is quoted on your actual glass, and payback follows from that quote in the full Epic analysis, which also ranks every film against the look you want and the daylight you keep. Request the full analysis →

Next step

Like the numbers? Get the real ones.

Request the Epic Facility Energy Analysis: a Solutions Advisor walks the building, gathers the site data, runs every film against your glass with the quoted price, and — where the glass warrants it — puts data loggers on your windows to measure the result before you commit. No fee, no obligation.

Request the energy analysis

Why this is different

What the brochure number doesn’t tell you.

Three ways facilities buy film on a payback nobody checked — and what Epic does instead.

The brochure percentage

“Rejects up to 60% of solar heat.”

True — on a quarter-inch pane of clear glass in a laboratory. Your building has dual-pane tinted glass on a west elevation, a 25-year-old rooftop unit and a utility rate the brochure has never heard of. A lab percentage says nothing about your payback.

Epic: your glass type, your elevations, your equipment, your rate.

The generic online calculator

One box, one number, one answer: buy film.

Most dealer calculators take a square footage and multiply it by an assumption. No orientation, no HVAC efficiency, no climate hours, no comparison between films — and no way for your finance team to check the arithmetic.

Epic: a building model with every input shown, every film ranked, and the math your CFO can audit.

The payback nobody measured

Ask the installer for the data. Watch what happens.

If the company quoting you a four-year payback cannot put a logger on your glass and show you the before-and-after temperatures, the payback is their opinion. You find out whether it was right a few summers later.

Epic: baseline and with-film readings on your own windows, in the report, before you sign.

Built by Epic. Run by Epic.

Built in-house by Epic — not a manufacturer calculator with our logo on it.

Epic developed its analysis engine, its site-data protocol and its data-logger verification method in-house, for the way we sell: show the facilities director his own building, every 3M film ranked, and the measurement that proves it. It comes with the Epic project — the walkthrough, the analysis and the field verification are included for qualifying commercial buildings.

Request the Epic analysis

How the Epic analysis works

Your equipment. Your glass. Your rates. Measured.

Site data

Glass area by elevation (north, south, east, west), glass type or the NFRC label, HVAC tonnage and EER, a recent electric bill, and the annual heating cost if there is one. A Solutions Advisor gathers it on the walkthrough, or you fill in the one-page site data form.

Building model

Cooling energy from your actual equipment and run hours for your climate zone (ASHRAE), the share of that load driven by sun through the glass (LBNL research, adjusted if you have an audit), and an orientation-weighted exposure ratio — west glass counts more than north glass, because it is.

Every film, ranked

Every 3M sun-control film is run against your building — not a generic brochure number — and ranked by annual savings, simple payback and net benefit over your analysis horizon, with the daylight each one keeps shown next to the dollars.

Verified on your glass

For larger buildings we go further than the model: data loggers on the glass and in the room, baseline readings and then readings with film samples applied, on the same window in comparable sun. Measured reduction is reported next to the published spec. Estimates are useful; measurements close deals with facilities directors.

Epic’s field-verification method

The data logger is the closer.

Every film company shows a chart. Epic shows a facilities director his own window: glass-surface and room temperatures logged before, then with three film samples applied in comparable sun, side by side with each film’s published spec. When the measured reduction lands where the spec says it should, the conversation about payback is over.

Baseline and with-film readings on the same window, same sensor placement
Up to three films tested side by side, ranked against published performance
Shaded glass-surface thermocouple; pyranometer when solar radiation matters
Results printed in the client report, not kept in a notebook

33%

Of cooling load from window solar gain (LBNL default)

2–6 yrs

Industry benchmark payback, commercial film

Elevations modeled separately

Film samples field-tested per building

Downloads

Read a report before you request one.

Free download · 3 pages

How to read an Epic energy analysis

What the one-line summary, the ranked film table, payback and net benefit mean — and what ‘good’ looks like.

Free download · 1 page · Word

Site data form

The one page to fill in before the walkthrough: glass by elevation, HVAC nameplate, utility rate, heating cost.

FAQ

Energy analysis questions

Is this a certified energy model?

No. It is a building-specific planning analysis built on your equipment, your glass and your rates, using ASHRAE climate data and LBNL research on window-driven cooling load. It is far more accurate than a brochure percentage and it is what most facilities and finance decisions need. If your project requires an ASHRAE Level II audit or an eQUEST / EnergyPlus model — for an ESCO contract or a utility incentive, say — we work alongside your energy engineer and supply the glazing inputs.

What is a typical payback?

The industry benchmark for commercial sun-control film is a two-to-six-year simple payback with fifteen to twenty-plus years of savings after that. West-heavy glass, single-pane glass, high electricity rates and long cooling seasons shorten it. Your number comes from your inputs, not an average.

Why aren’t payback and price on the estimator above?

Because installed price depends on the glass — pane size, access, height, film series — and a payback built on a guessed price is worse than no payback. The estimator shows energy savings so you can see which films matter for your building; the full analysis adds the quoted price for your actual elevations and the payback that follows from it.

Does film help in winter?

Standard sun-control films do not change heat loss much. 3M’s All Season low-E films do — they cut summer solar gain and winter heat loss — which is why they rank higher in Denver and Chicago than in Houston. The analysis includes both effects.

Can the savings be used for a utility rebate or a grant?

Often. Many utilities offer custom-measure incentives for window film with documented savings, and several state programs accept it as an energy-efficiency measure. The analysis is formatted so your utility or energy manager can review the method and the inputs.

Can’t any window film company run an energy analysis?

Any company can hand you a manufacturer percentage or a one-box calculator. The Epic analysis is proprietary: our own engine, our own site-data protocol and our own data-logger verification method, developed in-house and run by Epic Solutions Advisors. The difference you will notice is that every input is yours and visible, every 3M film is ranked rather than one being pushed, and the savings are measured on your glass before you commit — not promised and forgotten.

Who built the tool?

Epic did, in 2026: a working model that our Solutions Advisors run on a laptop in front of the customer, with a printable report that becomes the record for the proposal, plus a customer report explainer and a one-page site data form. The estimator on this page is a simplified public version of the same engine; the full analysis, the pricing on your actual glass and the field verification stay with Epic.

What does the analysis cost?

For qualifying commercial buildings it is part of the Epic project — the walkthrough, the site data, the ranked analysis and, where the glass area warrants it, the data-logger verification. There is no separate fee and no obligation to buy film at the end of it.

Request a facility energy analysis

Tell us the building and roughly how much glass. A Solutions Advisor schedules the walkthrough, gathers the site data and runs every film against your numbers — at no charge.

Get started