 | Bob Crager of Lewis Street Glass is a 26 year veteran in the glass business. Lewis Street Glass is a leading Wichita Glass company, serving the entire Wichita/Sedgwick County area since 1919. They do anything and everything having to do with glass, both residential and commercial. They also do Auto glass. They are located at 743 South Market, facing Kellogg on the South, and you can reach them by phone at (316) 263-8259. You can email Bob Crager at bcrager@lewisstreetglass.com |
Glass
2009-02-01 14:22:00
Smart glass coming to a street near you?
Answer: About 5 years ago, the estimated flat glass market was to be in the range of about $40 Billion per year…not a bad range at all when you think about it! Of that, the window market for homes and businesses, whether new builds or replacement windows, was estimated to be about $15 Billion in just the United States. Worldwide, the window market is about $30 to 45 Billion dollars a year. The worldwide glass market for all automotive and truck type vehicles combined was estimated to be about $4 Billion a year. Sunglasses and ski goggles make up a market of about $9 Billion a year. Now, as you might imagine, the energy consumption issue is becoming more and more important as the years go flying by, and the industry is constantly developing newer technology to try to address those issues. Recent studies show that energy consumption from lighting the interiors of homes and businesses can be reduced by 50 to 80% by the use of properly designed and installed “day lighting” glass. In Commercial applications/buildings, lighting typically accounts for 30 to 50% of the total energy consumption. Building owners and occupants are actively looking for ways to cut their rising energy costs due to not only lighting, but the facts of uneven heating and cooling of the interior spaces.
Reducing the energy loads during peak hours through energy efficient designs and technologies can result in significantly lowered energy costs, due partly to the ability to qualify for rebate programs that are available. A side benefit is that worker productivity has been shown to increase by as much as 15% by utilizing some of the newer energy efficient building designs. Since some companies annually spend, on average, 70 times as much money per square foot on salaries as on energy, an increase of only 1% in productivity can result in an increase to the bottom line that exceeds the company’s energy bill!
When you look at the current residential architectural trends toward greater numbers of windows, as well as larger window surfaces, it’s easy to determine that this movement toward more energy efficient homes is what is driving the demand for high end glass, such as solar control glass. In the retail market, a study comparing “day lighting” the interiors of the buildings to those being lit by artificial lighting showed that the “day lit”, natural light stores had more than 40% higher sales. If you notice, a number of large retail stores, including the newer Wal-mart stores are using “day lighting” in response to the fact that those daylit areas of the stores had significantly higher sales.
The “smart glass” you mentioned actually integrates two concepts, photovoltaics, and electrochromics, which produce a self powered, self dimming window, skylight, eyewear, indoor signage, etc. Smart windows can be incorporated into all types of buildings, both commercial and residential. Skylights, interior partitions, as well as indoor signs or displays can all be outfitted with “smart glass”. This new technology is really kind of interesting. Electrochromic windows consist of up to seven layers of materials. The function of the device results from the transporting of hydrogen or lithium ions from an ion storage layer through an ion conducting layer, injecting them into an electrochromic layer. This layer is typically tungsten oxide. The presence of the ions in the electrochromic layer changes its optical properties causing it to absorb visible light, which has the result of the window darkening. In this arrangement, the central 3 layers are sandwiched in between two layers of a transparent conducting oxide material. To protect the aforementioned 5 layers of materials, they are further sandwiched between two layers of glass. All of the layers are transparent to visible light. To darken, or color the windows, a voltage is applied across the two transparent conducting oxide layers. This voltage drives the ions from the ion storage layer, through the ion conducting layer, and into the electrochromic layer. To reverse the process, the voltage is reversed, driving the ions in the opposite direction, out of the electrochromic layer, through the ion conducting layer, and into the ion storage layer. As the ions migrate out of the electrochromic layer, it lightens (or “bleaches”), and the window becomes transparent again.
Complicated? A little, yes, but you did ask the original question about “smart glass”…! Some information was researched for you on the internet…More next month…
