Tag: Low E Glass

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5 Advantages of Low-E Glass

Advantages of Low-E Glass
Advantages of Low-E Glass

Low-E glass is a kind of glazing glass that contains a clear, tiny coating that increases the thermal effectiveness of your windows. Today, we’ll look at the benefits of low-E glass so that you can make an informed decision about your forthcoming glazing purchase.

What Is Low-E Glass?

It is estimated that around 10% to 50% of a particular home’s energy loss happens via its doors and windows, with 90% of the energy dissipated from the glass itself.

Low-E glass gets into play here. Low E glass is clear glass with a tiny, opaque coating on its outermost layer that is more effective at deflecting heat than the material itself, resulting in a composition with less emissivity than conventional glass. As a result, glass with a low E coating keeps your house warmer by reflecting a greater proportion of the warmth back into the house, and it may also keep your house cool by reflecting the heat from outside.

Advantages Of Low-E Glass:

Insulating Power

Low E glass’s first major benefit is its superior insulating power to your windows. Because of its low-emissivity coating,low E glass has better insulating capabilities than ordinary uncoated glass, keeping your home’s occupants warmer throughout the severe winters.

If you have troublesome family members who fiddle with the room heater regularly, low E glass may be your best option. With your home slightly warmer from December to March, household thermostat offenses may be at a record low.

Impressive Solar Gain Statistics

An IGU has to include the location of a soft-coat low E surface layer. So, if you look at the double-glazed glass from the outside, its outer and very inner surfaces are not accessible, providing you with a pair of sealed interior surfaces onto which a low E layer can be placed. In most cases, the surface is the inner surface of the window’s inner pane.

Placing the coating there provide some optical benefits while allowing the IGU to have reduced solar gain numbers. Thermal power from sunlight is reflected away from the home like low E glass returns heat into your home.

A low E film combined with a tint can be referred to as “solar glass,” it can have a solar heat gain factor (g-value) as low as 0.14, indicating that 86% of the energy from the sun is reflected away from your house. As a result, another significant benefit of low E glass is the creation of a cool, comfortable interior summer climate.

UV Protection

Low E glass, like thermal glass, may reflect most UV light, preventing it from penetrating your home. This not only safeguards the people in your household but also your furniture because UV light tends to oxidize the fibers of carpets and appliances, leading them to shed their color.

Energy Efficiency

Low E glass is far more efficient and works better than ordinary double glazing, which could save you some costs on your cooling bills. This decrease in cooling expenditures corresponds to a decrease in total energy usage, lowering your carbon footprint.

User Friendliness

As previously said, soft-coat low E glass has its low-emissivity layer on a surface sealed within the unit. It is unlikely to be scratched or damaged and will likely keep most of its sun-reflecting, insulating, and UV-protective properties for many years.

Low E glass does not exclude adopting additional helpful features such as greater security, noise reduction, or easy-cleaning technology.

Conclusion:

Considering the importance of environmental initiatives, “choose and low-E glass” windows as an excellent alternative to standard windows. You will receive all the advantages listed above when you install it. With its distinctive products, AIS Glass has provided such green glass solutions.

AIS Glass has been a unified glass manufacturing market leader for over thirty years. We offer exceptional glass solutions from design to installation and can handle any processing you require. Our high-performance glass solutions come in a wide selection of styles that fit your architectural designs and security needs.

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Here’s the Simplest Way of Determining the Energy Efficiency of Your Building

Times are changing, and so is the environment consciousness level of people. Today, when it comes to architecture and interior design, the facet of energy efficiency is taking a front seat. Home and office owners are beginning to imagine and create functional, future-proof and environment-proof spaces that do not have a high dependency on artificial energy. And, in their mission to reduce the carbon footprint of their buildings, glass plays a huge role since doors, windows and facades are the primary barriers separating the external environment from the internal environment.

Now, the first step towards making your building energy efficient lies in determining its present efficiency. Only then will you be able to select the right glass glazing in accordance with the results of your building’s energy efficiency determination. So, how does a layman do it?
You might imagine that calculating something such as energy efficiency is beyond your expertise and well within the grasp of only a professional architect, engineer, builder, or an interior designer. Yet, there’s an easier, quicker and extremely reliable way out – carrying out a virtual simulation of your building in the palm of your hands.
Being one of the most innovative glass manufacturers and glass suppliers in the country, AIS also offers an interesting portfolio of architectural mobile applications helpful to the layman. One of them is the AIS Glass Simulator – an app that lets you analyse your building for energy efficiency based on a wide range of parameters. Moreover, the app also recommends the best-suited high-performance glass products from AIS’ extensive portfolio depending upon the analysis of your building.
Easy, right?
With such an innovative application on your phone, you can take an informed decision about choosing the right glass glazing for your home or new project by carrying out a quick simulation anywhere, anytime. All you need to do is input a few details about your building, such as location, shape, orientation, wind-load, etc. On the basis of these parameters, the app will scrutinize your building to create an energy performance profile while also suggesting the most apt glass solution to turn your building energy efficient.
Add to that the extensive Product Catalog with different glass types manufactured by AIS and their details, along with a Project Showcase which features many buildings and projects from all over the country which have different AIS glazing installed, and you have the complete package on your fingertips.
Here are all the benefits of the app in brief:
• Easily analyse your building’s energy performance
• Get an intelligent analysis report
• Save time, energy and money spent on finding the right glazing
• Discover the entire high performance energy efficient glass range by AIS – AIS Ecosense
• Visualize how your chosen glass solution will look in real life
Easy-to-use, informative and helpful! Who knew energy simulation of a building could be this fun?

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Daylight Analysis & Glazing Selection: A Case Study

Natural lighting is an extremely important part of any building – simply because it is beneficial to both comfort and energy efficiency of an interior space. Having ideal natural lighting inside a building can reduce the dependency on artificial lighting and create a much more holistic environment for rest, relaxation and work.
Yet, enabling the perfect balance of natural light within a building is not merely a function of using a glazing which will reflect heat and filter light. It depends on quite many factors, including the building orientation, the appropriateness of light diffusers installed, and also the kind of façades and windows in place. Thus, architect and building owners must conduct a thorough daylight analysis of any building in order to suggest glass that minimises discomfort and maximises visibility. Only after analysing the results of such a study can one opt for retrofitting buildings with low-E glass or going for a new glazing with the ideal U-value and SHGC.
This is what we performed for a corporate building in Mumbai.
CHALLENGE
A corporate building in Mumbai required an optimum glazing solution to maximize its VLT (visible light transmission) requirement without overdesigning the building.
SOLUTION
Going by the specifications of glass, one with the lowest U-value and SHGC would have been the right solution for the corporate building. Yet the solution was not so easy.
In order to determine the effect of various glazing variants on the building, a daylight analysis was performed. The two glazing variants simulated for the building were Clear Glass (VLT 78%) and high performance glass (VLT 21%). Both the glasses performed identically in terms of achieving the optimal lux levels. Clear Glass, in fact, caused glare in certain portions of the building.

As can be seen in Fig. 2, the first case is Clear Glass (VLT = 78%). The pink region shows the area which will have glare, and the grey region indicates sub-optimal lighting. The second case is high-performance glass (VLT = 21%). Here, we can see the reduction in glare area without reducing optimum lux level.
Thus, AIS recommended using high-performance glass in order to reduce cooling load without compromising on the lighting load.
RESULTS
From the study conducted, the following results were deduced:

  • The same fenestration behaves differently depending on the specific design.
  • It should not be assumed that products with low U-Value and SHGC are the best and universal solution.
  • For windows receiving a high amount of solar radiation, products with low SHGC would perform better. Hence, a glazing solution should be selected only after thoroughly analysing the building design.

As mentioned earlier, architects and glass manufacturers have to study various factors in building design before selecting the ideal glazing. An important factor is window orientation and area which allows ideal dispersion of daylight without causing glare or excess heat gain. It has been observed that south-facing windows let in the highest amount of daylight while north-facing windows let in diffused and reflected glare-free light. On the other hand, east- and west-facing windows let in direct sunlight, glare, and heat gain, which are difficult to manage. Thus, different glazing solutions are required for different orientations, especially in the kind of building mentioned in the case study.

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Optimal Building Design & Glazing: A Case Study

It is the 21st century, and energy conservation and sustainability in architecture is surely gathering momentum. With one eye fixed ever so intently on the environment and the rising global temperatures, architects are turning to innovation and technology to turn the tables on myopic building design and combat energy inefficiency in our living and working spaces. This is where glass is proving to be their trusted accomplice.
So, when a prominent learning institute in Mumbai approached Asahi India Glass Ltd., the most comprehensive integrated glass company in India, to achieve high performance energy efficiency, we carried out a comprehensive and painstaking glazing and building design analysis to provide a satisfactory solution. Let’s find out how:
Problem
A learning institute in Mumbai wanted to optimize its building design without spending big on glazing solutions. This meant reducing the heat gain inside the building without compromising natural lighting.
Solution

Normally, we have observed that when it comes to glazing solutions providing high performance energy efficiency, architectural glass variants with a lower Solar Factor and lower U-Value are favoured. But to achieve the ideal balance between the building design and glazing feasibility, we had to come up with an optimum solution that offers best return on investment.
Therefore, first we conducted a study to understand the building design. Due to the architecture of the institute, the building’s direct and indirect heat gain had fallen down considerably. This can be explained by Fig. 1:

  • 4 Classrooms located on the north side received diffused light and no direct heat
  • 4 South-facing classrooms were provided with a shading device to prevent direct heat and glare
  • 4 Buffer zones, created by placing the service areas along the east façade and corridors along the west façade, prevented heat ingress in the offices
  • 4 Walls had good insulation properties to prevent long-wave radiations from entering into the building
  • 4 North light provided natural light to a portion of the building

These observations allowed us to fine tune our glazing solution. Ultimately, due to the optimal building design, we could choose a solution which did not have the best specifications (and therefore higher cost) but was a perfect match for the design.

In order to do so, a detailed building energy analysis and simulation was conducted with a huge portfolio of AIS products. Their performance parameters are compared in the table above. Then, we compared the energy saving percentage against cost payback period.
This study is depicted in the Fig 2. As one can see, Spring SGU (Solar Control product from the AIS Ecosense range) which has Solar Factor (SF) = 64%, Visual Light Transmission (VLT) = 65%, and U-Value = 5.4 w/ m2 k performed best out of all the glasses with 17% energy savings and 2 months’ payback period, when compared to base case Clear DGU (double glaze unit).

Results
Thus, by understanding the relationship between building design and glazing type, we could suggest the client a glazing glass with an optimum Solar Factor and U-Value and higher VLT – thus enabling the institute to save on money and recover investment far quicker than imagined.

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Glass: The Most Eco-friendly Glass Material for Buildings

With the presence of global warming and ecological problems becoming a huge problem over the last few decades, every industry is trying to use materials that will lessen the effects of the same. With the use of sustainable materials increasing by the day in the world, property developers and real estate companies are also doing their bit to improve the environment for a better future. This has led to the rise of green buildings. One of the most important materials in the construction of a green building is glass, whose specialised energy efficient and eco-friendly varieties like solar control and tinted glass are used.

Green Buildings

The development of green buildings is a start in that direction. Green buildings are buildings that use less water, 1ptimizes energy efficiency, conserve natural resources, generate less waste, and provide healthier spaces for occupants as compared to conventional buildings. They are also beneficial for the environment, as most buildings use recycled and environmental friendly building materials and provide effective building management systems.

Use of Glass in Architecture of Green Buildings

To achieve all of this, developers use glass as a major component during construction. Glass is known to be an excellent green material. Types of glasses like solar control glasses and low-E glass can reflect heat or UV rays to maintain an optimal temperature inside the building. Glass in buildings also substantially reduces the need for artificial lighting and allows daylight to make the interiors airier and more open.

From design, appearance, thermal performance, and comfort to simple aesthetics, selecting the right glass is inevitably important for constructing a green building.

AIS Ecosense, a low-E high performance energy efficient glass  help a green building.

achieve a great balance between all the parameters and block a high amount of solar radiation by reflecting away the infrared part of sunlight. This helps buildings remain invariably cool in the summer and cuts down on energy bills and air conditioning usage.

Impact on Environment

The biggest advantage that makes glass a major component in green buildings is the fact that it is recyclable and also does not have a huge impact on the environment itself. Glass can play a role in accomplishing greater indoor environmental quality and when used carefully, can also improve energy efficiency. Along with tangible benefits, glass can also provide enhanced air quality, excellent daylighting, and general health & well-being for the occupants. From a global point of view, the conservation of scarce natural resources is also a huge advantage, while its widespread acceptance and enhanced marketability make it a viable option for the industry too.

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