Window replacement costs in Albuquerque

Albuquerque windows live in the middle. A national lab's county guide to energy-code climate zones lists Bernalillo County as zone 4B, mixed-dry. It puts the Arizona desert counties in hotter zone 2B and the counties along Colorado's Front Range in colder zone 5B. Albuquerque sits between them, so a window here has to deal with both a strong summer sun and real winter nights.

The housing is a mix too: the median Albuquerque-area house is from 1986, roughly 40 percent are older than 1980, and one in twelve is a mobile home.

If you live in Sawmill or Wells Park, the city's development ordinance has a say in how windows look. The area is one of Albuquerque's character protection overlay zones. For residential development there, new windows must sit at least 2 inches back in the wall or get a casing at least 2 inches wide. Reflective or mirrored glass is banned. Window and door styles have to be the same or similar on every part of the building, including any detached house on the lot.

Outside the overlays, the look is mostly your call, which puts more weight on the glass itself. Ask each installer how the glass they're offering handles both a July afternoon and a January night.