Saturday, May 29, 2010

Approved so Quickly

It took only two weeks for me to mail in and receive back the approval to have a medical exemption for my vehicle sun-screening (car window tinting) due to Migraines. I honestly expected it to take a lot longer, but it has forced me to complete my research now.

Did you know you can even have your house windows tinted? Did you know that window tinting will reduce heat inside of the car? Will reduce glare? Will block Ultraviolet (UV) Rays? You can get a clear window film, with no tinting, that will block UV Rays and some glare.

I don't think any states legally allow any tinting on the front windshield, but when I received my exemption, I was also approved for a clear windshield sun-screening which I was not expecting. The approvals I received were for minimum percentage levels of visible light transmission (VLT), UV transmission and visible light reflection.

The VLT is a measure of the amount of total visible light that passes through the glass. Different tints will offer different VLT amounts to help vision in various light conditions. UV light is a portion of the light spectrum that is not visible to the eye. There are two bands of the UV spectrum, UVA and UVB. The light reflection is the percentage of light reflected by the surface of the glass.

The lower the VLT number, the darker the tint. To test to see if I wanted tinting, I drove a truck with a VLT of 20. I was approved for the front side windows VLT of 60. Although this is much lighter than the 20 I had driven, I believe it will be much easier to drive at night and in the rain. More importantly, I think it will help me during the day when the sun is beaming in and with the sun glare. I am hoping it is going to take the edge off of the pain from the sun and other lights. To give you a visual, here is a sample chart of different VLT spectrum's:

(click on picture to get a better view)


I think I am going to go ahead with my vehicle sun-screening. I'm also toying around with having a lower VLT number for the rear door windows and maybe an even lower number for the rear window.

In my state, once you receive a medical exemption, they only have a few state licensed sun-screening facilities which we must take our cars to in order to get our windows treated. I called one of these places this morning and it will cost a little more than I anticipated if I want to get the windshield done too, but I think it will be worth it too. When I asked how much it would be to have the sunroof done, this place said they would throw it in for free. I really think he was holding back a laugh, but I'll take it.

Besides medical or aesthetic reasons, there are other benefits to having your windows tinted. The sun-screen can greatly reduce the level of heat that gets inside of the car because of the solar control properties of the tint. It will minimize the level of glare that enters through a car window which helps improve vision and I can only imagine that it will reduce the pain from the sun glare too. Tinting will also block some of the UV rays from the sun.

I'm starting to get excited to try the tinted windows, but mostly because of the anticipation of how it will help my Migraines. Now I just need to find the time and get the money together to have it done. I can't wait!

.

6 comments:

steph said...

This is a great idea!

MigrainePuppet said...

Thank you. I wanted to share the information I found out around this in case it could help anyone else.

Diana Lee said...

That's great! We need/want to get our newest car tinted, but haven't done it yet. Need to get on that with summer coming.

MigrainePuppet said...

At this point, I feel I need my car tinted too and am getting excited to try it as another one of my Migraine preventatives.

WinnyNinny PooPoo said...

Good idea 'bout the night vision, tho. Wouldn't have thought about it...

MigrainePuppet said...

I think on a sunny day, the darker it is the better it would be, but since it would be there at night and during bad weather, we really need to take that into consideration too. I was happy to find the VLT Spectrum comparison chart because I feel better about the 60% not being too light.