Home remodeling or renovation will most likely involve replacing your windows. This will involve picking the windows that fit your needs and that you find aesthetically pleasing. However, recent technological innovations can allow you to get new windows that are not only functional and pleasing to the eyes but can also help you control the temperature in your house without sacrificing the entry of light into your homes. This can be done by high-tech glazing processes on new windows. Heat loss To be able to understand the technology better, you need to know how heat loss through glass occurs. There are three ways that heat is lost through glass, the first is through conduction, where heat is transferred from one body to another body in direct contact. The second way is through convection, where heat is transferred from one point to another within a fluid by mixing two fluids together. The third way is through radiation, where heat is transferred from one body to another by wave motion without heating the space between the two bodies. New technology to reduce radiation In the design of traditional windows, the aim is to minimize conduction and convection, which have been successfully done. However, reducing the heat transfer through radiation has been generally ignored until recent times when new coating methods have been formulated to help windows reduce heat transfer through radiation. This new technology involves coating windows with an ultra-thin metallic coating that can reduce the passage of radiation through the glass without compromising visibility and the room temperature. Studies have shown that windows coated with this material can block up to eighty-five to ninety percent of radiant heat and new technologies are being developed to further increase the effectiveness of this technique. Given these new developments, homeowners are now assured that by using improved window replacements, the bad effects of radiation are mitigated. |