Loading...Have you ever stood inside, next to a window, in the dead of winter, and sometimes it feels like it’s 10 degrees colder by that window? I’m sure that everyone can say that they’ve experienced that, and it’s not a good feeling when you’re in your own home.
But what about when your customers feel it? Your employees? Your clients? Sure, it’s a quick fix to turn up the heat, but that heat is literally going right out that window. No, no, more heat is not the answer. The answer, rather, lies in a much simpler, much more cost effective, much greener solution.
A company in the Rocky Mountains, a region that’s no stranger to the cold, has engineered a product that will save you hundreds of dollars by reducing your overall energy costs, and at the same time, making that window seat a real “hot spot”. All it takes is a simple 48 volts of DC electricity installed by the NECA-IBEW team.
I know it’s hard to imagine, what with summer in full swing and all, but winter is just around the corner, and one company with a jump start on the season is Radiant Glass Industries, a division of Busick Insulated Glass, located just east of Denver, Colorado. Their production lines are in full swing, engineering a new brand of heated glass window, one that, to the naked eye, looks exactly the same as a traditional double-pane window.
But what you can’t see are the 48 volts of DC electricity being carried across the glass, between the panes, in an invisible conductive coating. This coating allows the glass to heat up, and once installed, the window even comes with a controllable thermostat.
Mark Eatherton, Human Comfort Technologist
“For it to have neutral thermal capacity, we’re looking at surface temperatures around 74 degrees Fahrenheit. Above that, it starts producing positive energy into the room, which will then affect the mean radiant temperature within the room itself. We can go all the way up to 143 degrees Fahrenheit for our listed approval.”
Every building or home already ahs a thermostat for the forced-air systems, but thanks to these new Power *e Windows, traditional HVAC systems could someday become a thing of the past.
Steve Busick, President, Busick Insulated Glass
“It creates a heat barrier. And that, by itself, we’re generating heat on the glass surface. It’s creating a heat barrier, which is stopping heat loss from the room. Not only are you stopping heat loss, you’re generating heat and putting it back into the room. You always have to accommodate for that heat loss. Glass windows are a sinkhole for your heat loss. No matter if they are double-pane, triple-pane or what have you, the weak part of your business as far as heat loss is going out that window. We’ve solved that problem, and not only have we solved it, we’ve created heat generated back into the room.”
Kansas State University conducted a study on how much you can save by installing these windows, and the results should grab the attention of any owner of general contractor. According to the study, a room loses 20 to 50 percent of its heat through the window. That means that any given day, at its best, your traditional HVAC heating is only 75 percent efficient, and at its worst, 50 percent.
Power*e Windows beat that hands-down. They’re 85 percent efficient 365 days a year.
Mark Eatherton, Human Comfort Technologist
“The information that came back was done with what is called an ABOVE test, which stands for Actual Building Occupied Verified Efficiency. This has millions of points of data that have been put into this base program, and they can model a given building, and they can see exactly what the human comfort factor is going to be at any spot within that room. Professor Chapman modeled an office building in Chicago, and ran it first with gas forced-air, and took all that information, and then shut the forced-air heating system off and turned the radiant window heating system on. He saw a reduction of 42 percent in the way of energy consumption directly, but a substantial increase in human comfort.”
It’s much more comfortable in a room with Power*e Windows because they create radiant heat, a type of heat that is much warmer and more powerful. But these windows don’t stop at a high efficiency rating. They’re incredibly green. Not only do they eliminate airborne pollutants through the use of radiant heat versus forced air, these windows run on 48 volts of DC electricity, not traditional AC power.
Mark Eatherton, Human Comfort Technologist
“The DC power requirements for this window were by intention. The inventors of the window realized that there was a direct connection between solar photovoltaics, hydrogen fuel cells, and hydroelectric plants – they all produce power in the form of DC electricity initially. It then has to be converted to AC power to be utilized in most dwellings and office settings. Photovoltaics, basically, during the day, we can intercept the sunshine on the south side of the house, and then take that through electricity, through wires, to the north side where the windows are located at, and utilize that solar energy that’s falling on the south side on the north side of the house. This thing is bright green. This is one of the greenest products I’ve ever seen in the 34 years I’ve been doing this.”
Armed with this knowledge, we had to see these windows in action. Prime 121, a steakhouse in Denver, recently installed these Power*e Windows, and owner Scott Fickling told us his motivation for doing so.
Scott Fickling, Owner, Prime 121 Steakhouse
“Well, my concern was for the customer, that they would be comfortable, that there wouldn’t be a chill if you sat by the windows, because people like to sit by the windows.”
And since Scott made the decision to install the Power*e Windows, he’s noticed a dramatic change.
Scott Fickling, Owner, Prime 121 Steakhouse
“It’s working out great. It really cuts down on our heating bill. A lot of times we don’t even have to turn the heater on in the wintertime because number one, we are back underneath another building above us, it’s almost like a cave, so we have the windows across the front, and with the heated windows, it often retains the heat an keeps it rather warm during the winter.”
And that warmth translates directly into energy savings.
Scott Fickling, Owner, Prime 121 Steakhouse
“You can put your hand up against the window, and it’s warm. Even when it’s below 20 degrees outside, you can put your hand up against the window, and you feel warmth. It feels good.”
Mark Eatherton, Human Comfort Technologist
“There is not a place on the face of this earth where there is s piece of glass where this product should not be applied in my professional opinion.”
Power*e Windows have a lot going for them.