Window tinting percentages...What is best?

@KLD_Prius_PI_Synergy -- I have had three cars tinted at The Tint Source in Kearny Mesa.
The Tint Source - San Diego Auto Window Tinting/ Mercedes Benz Specialist
It's a small operation run by a tint expert named Lou. He does top-notch quality work. He can show you samples and he's aware of how to keep it legal, if that's what you want.

Lou explained to me that if you're getting a relatively light tint (keeping it legal) you can use a ceramic type of tint which blocks additional ultraviolet without making the tint visibly darker.

I tinted my current prius twice. The first time was modest, so as to avoid antagonizing the police. Then I got a ticket and I had to have it removed. So, the second time around I just got the tint as dark as I wanted. I'm mean what-the-heck, there's all these cars driving around with BLACK windows and I get hassled for a mild tint. It's basically a law that's selectively enforced -- a crap shoot!

 

What brand of film did You choose, Dylan, did it matter to You ??

 

I did not do ceramic tint because I chose a pretty dark shade. I am one of those people whose head starts spinning when you try to discuss percentages and what they mean. I just pointed at the sample that I like and I told Lou, "It's got to be show car quality." He gets it.

 

What does it cost to have the windows tinted?

I guess if you think of that as a disposable item, then you won't mind having this work done repeatedly depending upon your luck with local law enforcement.

 

My last tint was around $350. It's not something I would do on a monthly basis.

 

I don't understand the physics of this statement. How does tinting help "make a HUGE difference" in internal temperature? It seems to me that the car will be the same temperature as the ambient air. Which, if the ambient is 115 degrees would be 115 degrees.

 

I have llumar ctx 15% on all windows behind the front windows. 30 % on the front and air blue 80 on the windshield. Completely worth it. Go ceramic if you're set on getting tint. Car cools down extremely fast once the a/c kicks on and you can keep it on the lowest setting. At night the 15% makes it a little difficult to see through but with careful driving its fine. Aesthetically it's a big improvement too. Biggest part is finding someone good shop to properly install it. Mine ran me 360 all together

 

Internal temps get MUCH higher than outside ambient air temps for a variety of reasons.

To make a long story a little shorter, visible and UV light enters your car through the windows, is absorbed by everything it touches, then those things re-radiate that light in the IR spectrum (longer waves), molecules in your car such as water vapor and CO2 absorb that radiation (heat up), the heat cannot escape the same way that light can enter through the windows, your car heats up. (there are other factors in play as well, but from my understanding, this is the primary reason for the inside of a car being hotter than the outside air)

I live in the PHX area. When it's 110*F outside, the inside of a car can approach 200*F.

The way that tinting helps reduce this effect is that it allows less visible/UV light to penetrate the glass.

 

Tinting reduces the inside temperature through a few actions:

1. Reflecting visable (sun)light
2. Reflecting intra-red(IR) and ultraviolet light
3. Absorbing light and radiating it as infra-red back through the window
4. Warming the window glass which then gets cooled by outside air

Obviously #3 and 4 also occur to the inside of the car; infra-red radiates to the inside of the car and when the glass gets warmed this will warm the inside of the car through contact with air.

The best tints reflect 5-10% of visible light and higher percentages of UV and IR and absorb 90%+ of IR and UV. The cheaper tints just absorb about the same amount of light across the light spectrum. Obviously, the difference between a tinted car and an untinted car in the shade will be negligible.

There's definitely not a "best" tint out there. I'm looking at tints for my car at the moment. I want 3M Chrystalline 40% tint but don't think I'm willing to pay the $500+ to get it.

 

The truth of the matter is that if a car sits in the sun for an extended period, it becomes the same temperature as the ambient air, just like the pot roast does in your kitchen oven. No amount of tinting will reverse this trend. For a short period, the interior temperature may exceed the level of the ambient air, but because of the physics of heat transfer, the temperature will moderate. To accelerate the moderation, simply crack a couple of windows.