About buildings, from an energy point of view, the windows with their relevant glazing and the carpentry in general that will close the holes in the enveloping, are the weak point of any construction. Are the main thermal bridge on which we must study and act for the benefit of practicing better insulation on the skin of the building.
To this day, we are still designing buildings where the economic item of exterior enclosures with good quality insulating glass is quite rare in relation to other issues of the building that possibly be more aesthetic and visual in front of the potential buyer.
We think more about the future commercialization of the building than in adding added value to that home, office or premises commercial by reducing consumption or improving habitability with glazed carpentry duly that provide added value on effective acoustics, providing more light to the home or providing energy savings palpable in air conditioning and heating.
These are benefits that must be explained to the future owners so that they understand that the construction quality who resides in a house, for example, is not always having the best marble floor or the latest kitchen in design.
We want to find out why we should adopt a efficient and insulating enclosure quantifying its energy and economic advantages given that if we see the attached image, single glazing is leader in Europe, that is, low quality.
As a representative element and key link in the building envelope, we will adopt the windows in the exterior enclosure as a basis for study…
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Although this is a question with an obvious answer to many professionals in the architecture sector and construction, yes we would like to look at it from the graphic perspective based on their thermal bridges according to Pertinent thermographic photographs of a home.
First from the cold input and heat output, passing through the blind boxes and ending in the section of profiles to have a global vision of their behavior:
Two elements are characterized as key points throughout carpentry:
We must remember that there is a wide range of models of glazed enclosures , products and solutions for houses or any element construction such as: sliding windows or doors, enclosures folding, sliding enclosures or more specific roofs with technological features advanced with mobile roofs that are practiced in some more modern closings and the curtains of glass without profiles.
Broadly speaking, we can classify the following solutions of enclosure types glazed :
They represent a novel solution, within the glass carpentry , with the particularity that they are glass sheets attached to each other in its lateral part, where most of the pieces only They have a frame on their upper and lower face. To see better, in the following image that corresponds to a example of glass curtains in terrace
They are structures normally with carpentry of PVC commonly used in terrace glazing , in gardens or balconies of homes without profiles, which take advantage of their capacities to obtain advantages over the capture of the natural lighting in large spaces while protecting against weather actions and of course, with effective insulator as we will see later.
Opinions of these types of structures, many, the disadvantages of glass shades mostly are its cleanliness when glazing a considerable surface and the cost, today, in terms of resistance as a rule there are no issues. From the technical and drawing perspective we we would find the following profiles:
An example of how thermal insulation works and Sun protection when glazing a terrace would be the following schema:
The frame and glass, working together, are in charge in the medium and long term of provide us with adequate welfare benefits and comfort in our home, without counting the savings economic that we can obtain when profiling a better isolation. The combination of both is what gives us the capacity of
About thermal insulation in carpentry , the main factors that influence the energy savings of a window they are:
Remembering the concept of transmittance thermal “U” (U= W/m2K) because of its importance. The term represents the amount of heat passing through a material, which together is the thermal insulation capacity that may have, for example, a door or window, that is, the lower the "U", a greater insulation capacity will have the window or door. For understand the calculations of how it is obtained:
As we have seen, the glazing insulators are very important and we are going to see which It is the best option for our home…
Since it is complex to delve into the composition and groups, We wanted to provide a scheme that perfectly summarizes the possible variants and other aspects such as thickness, color, type of moon, reflective layer...etc. (By clicking on the image, expands)
Depending on the layers, the deposited material or the deposition system, the characteristics and benefits of the Glass obtained can be very different. To level commercial and from the perspective of the user is much more useful classify them according to the benefits and usefulness that these give us:
We must consider that we can also combine them to you strengthen certain characteristics.
The greater participation in surface on the window, makes that the gains produced in the U of the glazing have a greater repercussion than those achieved by the same gain over the U of the frame. (See also the article on efficient windows and their carpentry)
As advice, from the perspective of the units of insulated glass (North Orientations) should be take into account reduced values of U (W/m2K).
The glazing must allow the lowest transmittance heat and maximum light transmission. To increase the thermal insulation we must use glass of low emissivity where we have the types of glazing :
In windows that receive direct solar radiation (Houses with orientations of South, Southeast, Southwest, East and West) the Low solar factor glass dramatically reduces heat provided by the sun.
In hot climates or summer conditions, it is advisable to install glazing with solar factor reinforced (Always looking that the values of U are reduced)
How what we are normally going to practice is the change of windows or glazing a terrace with the intention to improve and save economically in our electric bill.
First, we'll see what kinds of new windows in façade with energy efficiency class in carpentry and PVC profiles (we leave aside those of aluminum and wood) we will find ourselves in the market commonly, Regardless of our budget or prices, we can see generally:
Guide to Work and Reform - Laplataforma.es
If we move to the windows in rooftops, we find the following table guidance:
Guide to Work and Reform - Laplataforma.es
We wanted to provide a scheme that classifies from
Over every 100 Euros saved, the report breaks down where they come from and from which parts of the window:
After seeing the energy savings we can achieve thanks to the change in the exterior carpentry and studying the its behavior, we hope to have resolved some Doubts that can help us design buildings more efficient.
To learn more from a professional perspective:
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