Facade Glazing - Solar Control

In a tropical country like India, glass facades can control the

amount of heat that enters buildings. Therefore, solar control
glass plays an important role in not just significantly reducing
the incoming heat but also decreasing the cost on airconditioning and blinds.
Solar control glass has a microscopically thin coating on one
side that reflects heat from the sun to the outside. In areas
that are extensively glazed, glass helps prevent over-heating.
It can also reduce the uncomfortable glare that comes from
direct sunlight.

Benefits
When using solar control glass for glazing large areas, the
glass allows natural lighting whilst restricting the resultant
heat from glazing. This is particularly useful in glass
conservatory roofs or south-facing glazed areas.
Glass facades with solar control glass are an energy-efficient
way to reflect heat from the sun and keep interiors cooler.
Solar control glass is well-suited for commercial glazing
because of its ability to curtail excess heat whilst allowing
optimum daylight and creating a larger sense of space.
Saint-Gobain Glass offers a wide range of solar control glass.
The different glass variants can be used in combination to
create a multi-functional glazing that results in lowmaintenance, noise reduction, aesthetic appeal and enhanced
safety & security.

ENVISION is an advanced solar control glass and low-E

glass. This green building glass is designed to give a
spectrally selective solar control performance and comes with
excellent thermal insulation properties.
SGG

NANO SILVER is manufactured by depositing a coating of

metallic oxides by magnetically enhanced cathodic sputtering
under vacuum conditions onto clear or body-tinted glass. It is
this coating that gives the glass its solar control and thermal
insulation properties as well as its distinctive appearance.
SGG

NANO is a high performance coated glass with advanced

energy-efficient solar control and thermal insulation (low e)
properties. It is ideal for modern architecture which demands
exterior glazing solutions with a neutral appearance.
SGG

EVO is a solar control glass that is energy-efficient and

has thermal insulation properties in a single glazing
application. It is designed to be in conformance with the
requirements of green buildings and ECBC (BEE) regulations
and is the ideal choice for buildings that are going in for the
LEED/IGBC rating and TERI-GRIHA rating.
SGG

PLANITHERM is an advanced thermal insulation glass

manufactured by coating clear or body tinted float glass with
metallic oxides through a process of magnetically enhanced
cathodic sputtering under vacuum conditions. It also has a
neutral appearance due to very low reflection.
SGG

COOL-LITE ST is an advanced energy-efficient reflective

solar control glass that cuts excess heat and optimizes light
transmission. The product has been specifically designed for
countries like India which face tropical climate.
SGG

ANTELIO PLUS is a reflective solar control exterior glass

that can be used to block the incoming heat radiation from
the sun, while allowing in natural light. It can be used in
single glazing as protection from extreme weather.
SGG

REFLECTASOL is a reflective solar control glass that is

best suited for buildings in geographies with tropical climate,
where solar heat needs to be controlled in order to keep
interiors cool. It reflects the right quantity of sunlight so as to
limit glare, while allowing adequate amount of natural light
and hence the need for artificial lights as well as airconditioners is significantly reduced.
SGG

PARSOL is a body tinted glass manufactured by the float

process. Specially designed for exterior applications, it is a
tinted glass with a coloured appearance, and also has the
properties of basic solar control glass.
SGG

Control climate
http://www.metroglasstech.co.nz/catalogue/093.aspx
minh hoa
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Understanding thermal
performance of Glazed Facades
Mr D E V S Kiran Kumar
30 November 2012
Buildotech
Recent developments in glazing systems provide optimized
solutions for daylighting as well as heat gain. They are
manufactured to transmit an adequate amount of light in the
visible portion, while excluding unnecessary heat gain from the
part of the radiation spectrum. Near-IR radiation should get
reflected through low solar gain coatings especially in case of hot
climate. Double glazed-reffective coated glass gives the best
performance in these situations. They provide almost 10% better
energy performance compared to single pane clear glass for a
commercial building located in warm-humid climate.
Dark tinted glass absorbs considerable amount of visible light and
changes its colour. Whereas if they absorb ultraviolet (UV) or near
IR, there will not be any change in visual appearance. There are
some heat-absorbing glasses to lower down the heat gain and
control the glare. Tinted glass is used to absorb the radiation and
reduce the heat transmission but more heat absorption by a tinted

glass causes rise in its surface temperature. However, the

absorption is not the most efficient way to reduce the heat gain.
Absorbed solar energy from the glazing emits back as long-wave
far infrared energy. The emission of radiant heat is one of the
most important heat transfer pathways especially in case of
double glazed system. For example, coating a glass surface with
low emittance (Low-E) material and facing that coating into the
gap between the glass layers prevents significant amount of this
radiant heat transfer and reduces the total heat flow. Due to its
energy efficiency, daylighting and comfort benefits, low-e glasses
are now widely used in the facade construction.
The three thermo physical properties of the glass that are usually
given by manufacturers are; conductance (U-Value), solar heat
gain coefficient (SHGC) and visual light transmittance (VLT).
Depending on the climate, U-value becomes important for energy
savings and for comfort. When considering U-value of a window
as a whole, it refers to the centre of glass, edge of glass and
frame respectively. Buildings with low U-value windows/ facades
bring down the conductive heat gain in to the buildings. SHGC is
the fraction of solar radiation that hits the glazing and passes
through the glazing and heats the room.
The lower the SHGC the greater it shows its shading ability. VLT
is the percentage of transmitted visual light through the glazing.
When a good daylight is desired, high VLT is advisable. But the
lower SHGC (eg. tinted-glass) will bring down the visual light
transmission (VLT). So, proper combination of these two

properties is required for a good selection of glazing materials.

The best performing glass is with VLT 0.66 and SHGC 0.33 as
specified by the manufacturer but the physical theoretical limit is
roughly VLT 0.6 and SHGC 0.25. The performance of the facade
doesn't depend on the glazing properties given by the
manufacturer alone. The overall heat gain will increase when a
glass is fixed on a metal frame. However, the glazing properties
specified by the manufacturer always do not match with its
performance in actual conditions. SHGC of the glazing has more
importance than U-value in the determination of cooling load.
Effect of glazing on energy systemsWhile calculating the
cooling load we consider several external and internal heat
sources. A building with 10m2 floor area and with commonly used
concrete construction gets 35-40% of heat gain through walls and
windows. Solar heat gain through window tends to be the single
most significant factor in determining the cooling load of a
building. However, there are other parameters related to window
design to be considered for optimizing its impact.
The HVAC equipment has to be selected carefully. Especially in
fully glazed buildings, proper combination of control set points,
glazing and solar shading are crucial for energy performance.
Past research shows that for every 10C drop in set temperature,
about 10% of additional energy is required. So, it is necessary to
create comfortable indoors with optimal energy consumption.
There is a chance of overheating near fully glazed areas which
causes non-uniform distribution of temperatures across the room.

So, it is important to select an air-conditioning system that works

to satisfy the demand using less amount of energy. Sizing of the
system is also very important which is done through estimating
the correct amount of heat gain. Lower SHGC glazing reduces the
peak demand which leads to the smaller size equipment. An
integrated approach is required to get benefits because of the
interrelationship between window glazing, mechanical systems
and lighting systems.
Issues related to facade designVarious parameters that
influence the facade design are - the outdoor environment;
building form and orientation; properties of opaque and
transparent materials used; scale and surface properties of the
surrounding buildings; window size and geometry. New
technologies and some design guidelines are described below.
Modern glazings control radiation by addition of various thick
coatings and colour tints that influence the absorption, reflection,
transmission and emission as functions of radiation frequency.
Gas fillers (argon, krypton, xenon) and special materials (poly
carbon, fibre glass) are used to control conduction. These
Insulating glass units (IGU) are hermatically sealed, multiplepane assemblies consisting of two or more glazing layers held
and bonded at their perimeter by a spacer bar and with a cavity
space filled with air or argon gas.

Other recent smart window technologies include electrochromic,

thermochromic, photochromic, liquid crystal device and
suspended particle device windows. Frit glass enables the
designer to use patterns on the facade They can help in reduce
heat gain by using high performance ceramic coatings. Frames
are also available with different materials and composites. They
are manufactured with thermal breaks to bring down the heat
enter into the buildings.
Window geometry and size are key factors which can influence
the indoor mean radiant temperature (MRT). A large window area
implies a large hot surface. Tall and narrow windows are better
than square windows; they should preferably be located apart at a
distance not less than one half of the smaller window dimension.
The high intensity of direct sunlight in the tropics provides a very
significant potential of utilizing natural light without glare and
excessive heat gain. Avoiding glare is the main challenge of
daylight design with glazed facade. Although buildings with high
VLT values are susceptible to glare, it can occur even with a small
windows and very Low VLT values. Full glazing causes too much
daylight at least in the perimeter areas.
A well designed building will provide natural lighting in to the deep
floors. In this context, window geometry and percentage of area
on facade are very important factors. Taller windows give greater
penetrations, and the broader windows give better distribution of
light. For a given penetration, a number of small windows properly
positioned along the same or the opposite walls will give better

distribution of illumination than a single large window. Buildings

with small punctures/ openings can be a source of glare due to
excessive contrast between the bright window and adjacent dark
wall.
Bringing the natural light into the building will reduce the lighting
energy consumption. The area of the opening/size is important for
that. Numerous studies have shown that there are no daylighting
or energy benefits with window to wall ratios over 60%, and in
most cases an area of between 25 and 40% is optimum. Natural
light can be integrated with electrical lighting using controls in
achieving optimal lighting as well as energy savings. According to
a model study done by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(LBNL), Berkeley, higher window to wall ratios (WWR), with
sunshades and daylighting controls requires less energy than
lower WWR without daylighting controls.
When a tinted glass is selected for less heat gain, the visual light
transmission value will also come down. In such cases, the whole
window can be divided into two shelves a daylight window and a
view window. Thus, lighting and thermal requirements can be
balanced with good light transmission properties for daylight
window and low heat transmission for view windows. Another
practice is that use of different glazing for window and spandrel
separately. Spandrel glazing will be insulated from inside to cut
down the overall heat gain of the facade.

Surrounding surfaces also influences the facade design. For

example, when reflective glazing is used on any neighbouring
building, it will act like a mirror and intensifies the sun's effects
and over heat building patios. Green cover around the building
will reduce such affect where as large water bodies again can
cause reflective glare. Solar heat gains vary by orientation which
influences the energy use in hot climates. It is important to follow
a few basic rules in design when determining perimeter areas like
avoiding the East and West facing zones. Shading is necessary in
the South facing zones and the North facing is acceptable even
without shading. As the heat gain comes down, orientation has a
lesser impact. Differences in energy use due to orientation can be
minimized not only by selecting proper glazing but alsoby external
shading Overheated spaces near the unshaded windows lead to
non-uniform distribution of temperatures inside the building and
cause thermal discomfort to the occupants. Shading should be
considered as an integral part of facade design in order to
balance the daylight requirements and reduce solar gains.
In this context, fully glazed buildings where the above discussed
problems are prominent, sun control films are the one of the
possible retrofitting options. Recent developments in solar film
coatings for window glass show substantial solar heat reduction
due to the direct beam and diffuse components. These films when
stuck on window glass provide a substantial heat reduction; which
indicates the lesser energy expenditures while people enjoy the
natural light and maintain the goodvisual contact with outside
environment. However, care hasto be taken when one wants to

apply film on glass. Film, when stuck on the glass will increase
the absorption of the glass and cause discomfort due to the
surface temperature.
Tags: thermal power, enery systems, thermal performance,
glazed facades
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Climate control: intelligent

faades
2 September 2011
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Why shouldn't building faades be smart enough to adapt to the

weather?
In recent years, architects and consultants have been coming up
with an array of designs for digitally controlled sunscreens that
move in response to shifting environmental conditions.
One leading expert in the field is New York City-based designer
Chuck Hoberman, who has helped develop a variety of
responsive sunshading systems for buildings around the world.
The recent wave of concern about sustainability and reducing
buildings' carbon footprints has spurred interest among architects
in such systems, he says.
With a traditional static faade, designers have to "come up with a
best fit to all of the conditions that the building will see,"
Hoberman remarks. "But if you're in a zone where you have a hot

summer and a cold winter, or intense solar gain at certain points

during the day but not at others - that 'best fit'... entails
compromises on its performance and on the occupants'
experience within the building."
By contrast, with a responsive design, "the building will optimise
itself to changes in the environment," he says. "That optimisation
results in improved energy efficiency and environmental
performance but, equally importantly, in enhanced comfort."

"Digitally controlled sunscreens can move

in response to shifting environmental
conditions."
At the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics by Perkins
Eastman in Stony Brook, New York, a kinetic sunscreen along the
southern glazing of a lobby creates an effect like "dappled
sunlight coming through leaves," says Hoberman, who helped
design the system. It uses a technology called Tessellate, which is
made of multiple overlapping layers of perforated metal panels,
the movement of which creates kaleidoscopic patterns.
In 2008, Hoberman's eponymous design studio teamed up with
engineering firm Buro Happold to form the Adaptive Building
Initiative (ABI), a company devoted to researching and developing
responsive faades like this one. Tessellate is part of ABI's line of
'intelligent surfaces', technologies that are highly customised for
each building project. Using Tessellate in a building envelope can
lower overall energy consumption by 6%, and it can reduce the
cooling load by 15%-20%, when compared with fixed shading.
The shifting geometries are also designed to be appealing to the
eye, creating a kind of 'functional artwork', Hoberman says.
For a competition-winning design for the new headquarters of the
Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Aedas came up with its own
bespoke shading screen with engineering help from Arup. The
screen will shield the building's two 25-storey glass towers from
the city's often-scorching sun. Aedas is aiming for an LEED Silver

rating for the project, known as the Al-Bahr Towers, which is

under construction and slated for occupancy in early 2012.

Modern mashrabiya
In searching for a sustainable, culturally appropriate form of sun
protection, the architects "struck upon the mashrabiya, which is
the traditional Islamic perforated screen," says Aedas deputy
chairman Peter Oborn. But they gave the design a modern update
"by making it dynamic. That would allow us, then, to reduce the
glass specification to provide better views and more natural light."
The screen is made of a mesh of thousands of umbrella-like
devices that cover the towers on all sides except the north.
Controlled via a combination of preprogramming and live data
from light, wind and water sensors, the 'umbrellas' open and close
as needed to protect the inside from the sun's heat and glare,
according to Abdulmajid Karanouh, an associate in Aedas's
research and development group, who specialises in system
design.
Each unit of the screen is triangular, divided into six smaller
triangles. Made of duplex stainless steel, aluminium and
fibreglass fabric coated with PTFE, an electric screw jack system
drives the movement, forcing the point of intersection of all the
triangles backward when the fabric needs to unfurl. Because the
sunscreen will reduce the need for air-conditioning and artificial
lighting, it is expected to lower energy use by 20% for the building
as a whole; even higher in the towers alone, Karanouh says.
The design might evoke comparisons to the responsive
sunscreen at Jean Nouvel's l'Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, but
the Aedas architects were careful to avoid the mechanical failings
of that early example from the 1980s.

"The screen is made of a mesh of

thousands of umbrella-like devices that

cover the towers on all sides except the

north."
To ensure the system's reliability, during design development, "the
first thing that we put on our agenda is testing," Karanouh says.
He recalls how, at a facility in Basel, the mashrabiya was tested
by through 30,000 cycles (the equivalent of 84 years of operation)
while being sprayed with salty water, dust and sand from Abu
Dhabi.
"Jean's Nouvel's building is an obvious precedent," says Oborn,
"but he designed that, in fairness, quite some time ago now, and
the technology that he used was considerably more primitive than
that which is available today, both in terms of design and
operation. So I think that the market and world has moved on a
long way since his initial work at the institute."

Featherlike faades
Cologne-based JSWD Architects and Parisian firm Chaix & Morel
et Associs designed the building, known as Q1 ThyssenKrupp in
Essen, which received a DGNB (German Sustainable Building
Council) Gold certificate. Unlike the fabric of Aedas's design,
Essen's smart sunshading system is made of stainless steel slats
in a featherlike pattern. It is one of many sustainable features of
an 11-storey office building in the corporate campus of
ThyssenKrupp.
The shading system helps reduce solar gain while often leaving
gaps that allow external views and let natural light enter, reducing
the need for artificial light. "This is very important, because the
greatest energy use in a building is electric energy, especially for
lighting," says Jrgen Steffens, a partner at JSWD Architects.
Because of the shading system and other green features, the
building uses less than 120kWh/m of energy a year, a low
amount for a glass high-rise.
Of course, energy savings of smart sunscreens are only part of
the equation. The benefits to occupants' comfort, morale, and

health are less easily quantified but equally significant. With the
project in Abu Dhabi, Karanouh notes. "Really our selling point
was... it will improve the health and working environment of your
employees and, ultimately, their performance. The more natural
sunlight they get and the less mechanical air ventilation they're
subject to, the healthier and more energised they're going to be."
After all, human energy is an important resource too.