Double-glazed units made with low E glass, and the aforementioned IGU tech, can have a U-value as low as 0.9! So, when combined with other insulating tech, such as warm-edge spacer bars and argon-gas-filled cavities, low E glass can be used to create an IGU (insulated glass unit) of real insulating potential. Low E glass has higher insulative properties than standard uncoated glass thanks to its low-emissivity film, thus making those harsh British Winters a fair bit warmer for your home’s inhabitants.Īdding the soft-coat low E film allows your glass to have an emissivity as low as 0.05. The first of the big advantages of low E glass is the supreme insulating power it adds to your windows. The coating used in soft-coat low E glass units tend to be that of a low-emissivity metal, such as silver. For the purposes of this piece, we’ll be focusing on soft-coat, as it is of lower-emissivity, and more commonly used in the UK market. This coating can either be “soft-coat” – applied to glass off-line in a vacuum chamber at room temperature and sealed within an IGU, or “hard-coat” – which is fused to the surface of the glass while it’s being produced. Glass with a low E coating therefore keeps your home warmer by reflecting a higher proportion of the heat back into your home, and can keep you cooler by reflecting solar thermal energy from outside. Low E glass is essentially standard clear glass with a microscopic, transparent coating on its surface that is better at reflecting heat than the glass itself, creating a composition that has a lower emissivity than standard glass. Clearly then, window glass needs some help in reflecting heat back into the home. Breaking this down, standard glass with its thermal emissivity of 0.9, allows 90% of thermal energy to pass through it, reflecting the remaining 10%. Metals, such as Silver and Aluminium, have thermal emissivities of <0.05, while standard clear glass comes in at around 0.9, making it one of the higher emissivity materials out there. A material is given a numerical thermal emissivity value of between 0 and 1, with a perfect reflector having an emissivity of 0 and the perfect absorber having an emissivity of 1. The emissivity of a surface refers to the amount of energy it emits at specific wavelengths, with thermal energy usually being the focus. In 1975, the first low-emissivity glazing solution was brought to market in a bid to change this. This is an undeniably hefty chunk of energy to be losing through such a small area of your house’s architecture. It is thought that between 10-50% of a given home’s energy loss occurs through its windows and doors, and that 90% of the energy lost through windows is lost through the glass itself.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |