I came across one new product at BRE’s Onsite 09 event, which was a new type of energy saving glass being marketed by Pilkington. It’s made in Japan, by Nippon Glass, owners of Pilks, and it consists of a two panes of glass separated by a vacuum gap of just 0.2mm. In this country, it’s being aimed fairly and squarely at the listed building/Georgian sash window market, because you get a very good U value from it (Centre Pane value 1.4) yet you can’t tell it’s not single glazing.
Well actually, you can, if you look closely. You can’t see that it’s two panes of glass, but the 0.2 gap has tiny black spacers located within it which you can see if you look close up – they appear to be a series of black dots. If the vacuum fails, the spacers fall out, so you have a visible clue that the unit is no longer working. But of course the units won’t fail. Will they?
The units are made up before the vacuum is applied. Each unit comes with a little grommet through which you can suck out all the air. There is a minimum unit size of 0.4m2, so a sash window will have to be done in one and glazing bars applied afterwards. But that’s not a big problem.
It looks as though they have got a product which can provide good energy efficiency and yet satisfy the English Heritage/Conservation Officer lobby. At around £300/m2, it will cost, but if done as a package of overall window refurbishment or replacement, it’s not that prohibitive. Just a shame they’ve given it a horrible name: Pilkington energiKare. I’m really getting to hate inTerCaps, aRen’T yOu?
I came up to Insite specifcally to look at the glazing. The rep estimated 150-500 per sq m dependant on quantity but there is no obvious benefit over double glazing. Stick on glazing bars and new sashes are necessary so retrofit is hardly economical. The sole positive is the reduced depth- ie 6mm rather than 24mm- but few people read that when looking at the elevation.
ReplyDeleteThere is also a bloody great spigot on each panel and the dots have a flyblown look.
5/10 but a good try.
i had 80sqm of spacia imported a few years back, and have just had a quote in the £180/m2 ballpark for another batch. down to personal pref. about spacers/grommets however imo the benefits ie. being able to keep original sash frames whilst achieving v. impressive 1.6u - outweigh the negatives.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I doubt you will still read this, but I'd be *extremely* interested to see the windows with the Spacia fitted. Do you have photos anywhere you could upload to, say, flickr?
ReplyDelete- passivhausfan
Hi everyone.
ReplyDeletewe can supply vacumm glass at 0.7 K value at USD 156 or 100 pound per sq meter
contact < stan@ennovate.com.my> or call +852 97386388