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Looking ahead, advanced technologies like dynamic and switchable glazing – glazing which can react to daylight exposure and limit heat transmittance – may also provide a solution for homes and commercial buildings
It’s solar control glass’ increasing ability to be combined with other solutions, such as self-clean or acoustic glazing, that is opening new opportunities for its specification.
Solar control glass in the home
While the commercial sector strides ahead in using solar control glass to curb energy use and maintain comfortable temperatures indoors, the UK residential market lags behind.
In the forthcoming Building Regulations Part L (Conservation of Fuel and Power) consultation in England, overheating is expected to be a focus area, not only for commercial buildings but also for residential properties.
This is unsurprising given that last year’s hot summer drew a lot attention to just how serious the overheating issue in homes currently is. Research by Loughborough University published in the Building Research and Information Journal (2017) outlined how deaths related to overheating could triple by 2040. Given solar control glass’ ability to reduce the amount of heat transmitted into buildings via windows, and subsequently reduce the risk of overheating without the need for mechanical cooling,
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the Part L consultation could lead to regulations that place more importance on its specification in the home. Currently, Part L only recognises the problem of solar heat gain in non-residential properties, where solar control glass or shading devices are required for large glazed projects to meet the solar gain benchmark. Currently, we’re waiting to learn how the Government proposes to address these growing concerns. For new, non-residential properties, the current ‘notional building’ used in the Regulations is based on a maximum g-value of 0.4, where 40 per cent of the total sun’s energy is transmitted. A lowering of this value could drive the market for more highly performing solar control glass. As an alternative to counterproductive designs such as reducing glazed areas, we could also see more importance placed on architects specifying glass with better solar control properties in the home.
Zero energy buildings Undoubtedly, over the next two decades we’ll see a step change in the way buildings are designed, driven in part by increasingly stringent Building Regulations, with each project striving to be a zero-energy building. Looking ahead, advanced technologies like dynamic and switchable glazing – glazing which can react to daylight exposure and limit heat transmittance – may also provide a solution for homes and commercial buildings. For now, it will be important for architects to watch the Government’s consultations surrounding energy efficiency and overheating closely. By the end of next year, the specification of solar control glass is likely to extend beyond the large commercial projects we see frequently now and to be seen in far smaller commercial and residential projects.
Leo Pyrah is product manager at Pilkington UK ADF FEBRUARY 2020
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