By Tom Sluis
Herald Staff Writer

Randy Gerken at Durango Solariums attaches a cabling device used for wires in an electric radiant window. Business owner George Usinowicz is unveiling the product, which can heat a room, in Aspen, Durango, Santa Fe and Telluride.

A La Plata County man who builds solariums for the discerning crowd is expanding his business to sell the first windows in the West powered by electricity.

Called Colorado Warm Windows, these high-end windows are not powered in the automotive sense. Electricity is simply passed across a coating on one of the panes, which in turn heats up and warms a room.

Say goodbye to cold drafts and condensation, says George Usinowicz, who brought back the idea from Europe. By warming the very spot where most of a home's heat is lost - the windows - thermostats can be lowered and more importantly, it just feels better, he said.

"It's a comfort item," he said.

The emphasis is on "comfort," because for all of Colorado Warm Windows' energy effectiveness, the product will not be cheap. At about $100 per square foot - installation is extra - it will take decades for a homeowner to recoup the investment with lower heating bills.

Regardless, for a tourism-dependent area constantly looking to diversify its economy, the windows could help create higher-paying manufacturing jobs, he said.

"Inside of a year this could bring several new jobs to Durango," said Usinowicz, president of Durango Solariums at 12029 U.S. Highway 550.

He models his company's efforts in part on another local business, Stoneage, which makes water-jet tools and equipment in Bodo Industrial Park. "They pay extremely well and offer profit sharing. That's the model for a small town," he said.

Usinowicz has been building custom solariums with Durango Solariums for 28 years. He uses the same construction method for his solariums as the windows. Thin layers of wood are glued and laminated together to make a frame. A steel rod runs through the wood and is bolted on the ends to make sure the pieces don't expand or contract.

Tests in Belgium show a typical living room can save up to 38 percent of the heat that is lost through windows. Compared with a heating system that uses electric radiators, the windows can produce a 25-percent energy savings during a normal heating season.

Don Jeter, owner of Valley Sheet Metal, lauds the windows energy effectiveness, but recognized they will be out of reach for most Durangoans. "I think they are wonderful, but I don't know how us poor people can afford them, not if you are building a house on a real tight budget," he said.

Jeter was very impressed with the window's performance, however. "If you ever stood in front of glass on a real cold day and felt the cold coming off it, this would stop it," he said.

That's exactly the idea, Usinowicz said. While there are many pragmatic benefits of the glass, its main selling point is a homeowner simply feels more comfortable.

"Cold glass sucks heat out of your body," Usinowicz said. "Someone will be able to sit next to a window in the winter and watch the snow falling without having to feel that cold draft over their skin."

In 2002, the company was chosen by the Colorado International Trade Development Commission to take part in an economic trade mission to Germany.

On a return trip in January of this year, Usinowicz came across the electric radiant glass. The window pane is made of hardened safety glass, so if it breaks, it falls into thousands of pieces. The filament coating also fragments to prevent shocks, and the electric glass can double as a burglary detection system. Ninety percent of the heat generated by the glass is radiated into a room.

"Only two people besides myself outside of Washington, D.C., have experienced this in America," he said. He is securing the rights to becomes the product's only distributor for the West.

Usinowicz has started unveiling the windows by having four representatives sell the product in Santa Fe, Durango, Telluride and Aspen. He is trying to get a manufacturing representative set up in the Front Range. He is also bidding on jobs and waiting for the orders to start arriving.

To a certain extent, he already has a clientele base available; customers of his who shell out thousands for one of his custom solariums presumably will be the same ones interested in an electric radiant window.

Two working units of the Colorado Warm Windows will be on display at this weekend's Home and Ranch Show.

If Usinowicz is successful in bringing the jobs, more power to him, particularly since manufacturing nationally is on the wane, said Chamber of Commerce Director Bobby Lieb.

"We have been losing manufacturing jobs nationally every year since 2000," he said. "If entrepreneurs like George can help turn that around, that's what we need to see more of."

Reach Staff Writer Tom Sluis here .