What TSER, IR Rejection and VLT Mean on a Tint Spec Sheet.
Eight Columns, One Shade.

TSER is total solar energy rejected: the share of all the sun’s energy reaching the glass that a film keeps out, with ultraviolet, visible light and infrared counted together. Infrared rejection counts one band of that energy. VLT is the shade. On Rayno’s Phantom S9 at 20 percent, infrared rejection reads 93 percent, TSER 64 and VLT 20.

Every film figure on this page is Rayno’s published figure, read October 2026, and every price is a starting price.

What is TSER on window tint?

TSER, total solar energy rejected, is the percentage of the sun’s energy a film stops at the glass, counted across every wavelength: ultraviolet, visible light and infrared. Because it counts everything, it tracks how warm the cabin gets more closely than infrared alone. On Rayno’s S9 at 20 percent, infrared rejection is 93 percent and TSER 64.

TSER moves with the shade. A darker film stops more visible light, and visible light is part of the total, so on S9 every darker shade Rayno publishes rejects more of the total. S5 does not follow it shade for shade: its 30 reads 49 and its 35 reads 51. By Rayno’s figures, S9’s infrared rejection is 92 percent at both the 5 and the 50 percent shade, while its TSER falls from 70 to 53.

One spec sheet row: Rayno Phantom S9 at 20 percent

A spec sheet gives one row per shade. Here is Rayno’s row for Phantom S9 at 20 percent, a shade Tint Starz stocks.

One spec sheet row: Rayno Phantom S9 at 20 percent

Column	What it measures	S9 at 20 percent
VLT	Visible light the film lets through; lower is darker	20 percent
Infrared rejection	The share of the infrared band blocked	93 percent
TSER	Total solar energy rejected, every wavelength combined	64 percent
UV rejection	The share of ultraviolet blocked	99.9 percent
Fading	How much the film fades, by Rayno’s rating	under 1 percent
Visible light reflection	How mirror-like the glass looks, inside and outside	5.4 and 5.1 percent
Shading coefficient	A glazing industry number; lower is cooler	0.49
S-factor	A glazing industry number; lower is cooler	36 percent

Phantom S9 at 20 percent: Rayno published figures, read October 2026.

VLT: the shade

VLT stands for visible light transmission, the share of visible light the film lets through. At 20, a fifth of the visible light passes. Lower is darker: 5 percent is limo dark, 70 percent is nearly clear.

VLT is also the number Illinois law is written in. Outside the medical exemption, nothing darker than 35 percent is legal on the front side windows of an Illinois registered car, and rear film darker than 30 percent rules out film on the front doors. The Illinois window tint law page works through which front shade goes with which rear.

What VLT does not measure is infrared. Rayno rates S9 at 50 percent, a light shade, at 92 percent infrared rejection, and the darkest S5, 5 percent, at 72.

Infrared rejection: one band

On this row infrared rejection is 93 percent. Infrared is the band of sunlight just past visible red, which the eye cannot see. The figure counts that band alone, and says nothing about the visible light that comes through.

UV rejection

On this row UV rejection is 99.9 percent, as it is on every S5 and S9 shade Rayno publishes. MonoCarbon, the Carbon film the shop installs, is rated 99 percent by Rayno. UV comes through car glass in winter as well as summer.

Visible light reflection, inside and outside

On this row it is 5.4 percent inside and 5.1 percent outside: how much visible light the glass bounces back from each side. Higher looks more like a mirror.

Illinois wants nonreflective film: the word is in every allowance in the statute, which sets no reflectivity percentage. By Rayno’s figures, every published Phantom S5 and S9 shade reads 5 to 7 percent, inside and out.

Shading coefficient and S-factor

Both are glazing industry numbers for the sun’s energy that still gets in through the glass, and for both, lower is cooler. On this row the shading coefficient is 0.49 and the S-factor 36 percent. On Rayno’s sheet, the S-factor and TSER add up to 100 on every published row, 36 and 64 here, so read the S-factor as the other side of the same measurement.

Rayno rates S5 at the same shade at 0.62 and 49 percent, so S9 lets less of the sun’s energy in at the same darkness.

Why is IR rejection different from TSER?

They measure different amounts of sunlight. Infrared rejection is a share of one band; TSER is a share of all of it. A film can stop nearly all the infrared and still pass visible light, and that light counts toward the total. On Rayno’s S9 at 20 percent, the two read 93 percent infrared and 64 percent TSER.

The gap is not the same on every film. Here are the two Phantom films at the same shade, by Rayno’s published figures:

Why is IR rejection different from TSER?

Phantom at 20 percent	Infrared rejection	TSER
S5	53 percent	51 percent
S9	93 percent	64 percent

At 20 percent, S5’s two figures sit almost level and S9’s sit far apart. Both put S9 ahead at this shade.

Why do tint shops quote infrared rejection?

Infrared rejection is the figure many tint shops quote, and this site leads with it too. On Rayno’s S9 sheet it holds steady from shade to shade: 91 to 93 percent across Rayno’s published shades, while S9’s TSER runs from 70 at 5 percent to 53 at 50.

The number also gets misused. You will see an infrared figure in the 90s presented as if it were the share of all the sun’s warmth a film stops. It is not. On Rayno’s own sheet, S9 at 20 percent reads 93 percent infrared and 64 percent TSER. Neither number is wrong: one is a band, the other is the whole. When a shop quotes a percentage, ask which column it came from, and for which film and which shade.

On this site, infrared rejection is the headline figure for all three films, and the film table on the ceramic window tint page shows Rayno’s total solar energy rejected beside it, shade by shade. For MonoCarbon, the Carbon film, the figures come from Rayno’s MonoCarbon specification sheet: 72 percent infrared and 54 percent total in the 5 percent shade, 41 and 35 in 35. Each film’s full sheet is on its spec page: S9, S5 and Carbon. Tint Starz also stocks S9 in 12 and 70 percent, and Rayno publishes no figure for either.

What should you compare on a window tint spec sheet?

Compare films at the same shade, and read the same column on each. Start with VLT, the number Illinois law is written in. Then read infrared rejection and TSER together, then UV and reflection. Check that every figure names the film and the shade it belongs to, and that a film’s infrared and TSER figures come from the same sheet.

S9 at 50 against S5 at 5 compares shades as well as films. Every film figure on this page is Rayno’s, for a named film and shade, and where Rayno publishes none, the site says so. Makers measure infrared rejection in different ways, so before comparing two brands, ask which wavelength range each figure covers.

See the shades, then price the film

Every stocked shade, film by film, is on the tint shades page. The price follows the film and the vehicle, not the shade. All-around tint, every side window plus the rear glass, starts at $350 in S9 on a coupe or single-cab truck, $400 on a sedan and $500 on an SUV or truck. S5 starts at $250 and Carbon at $200, both on a coupe. The final price depends on the vehicle, film, coverage, condition and installation difficulty.

Every film goes on inside the shop at 837 Oakton St Unit C in Elk Grove Village, by appointment, Monday to Saturday 9 to 6. From Arlington Heights Village Hall it is about 10 minutes outside rush hour, straight down Arlington Heights Rd to Oakton St: see window tint in Arlington Heights.

For an exact number, send your year, make and model through the quote form. The shop calls you back with the price within minutes during shop hours.