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Smart Glass Blocks Infrared - But Only When It's Hot
klevin writes "New Scientist has an article about a new way of making sheets of glass so they block infrared energy at temperatures above 29C (84.2F). Just so long as it doesn't have to get that hot on both sides of the glass. My AC comes on way before 84F. I suppose that with double or triple paned glass, you'd only treat the exterior pane."
How's that yellow tint going to look where indoor light is already greenish from fluorescent lighting? Will we walk outside and everything will look pink or purple? Fun!
Hopefully in three years they'll give some answers to these questions and more. I've got a couple windows, but we've got no air conditioning and the heat reflects off an earthen bank, most of the heat comes through the walls.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
This will severely hamper my illicit recordings of my neighbors having sex using my hidden wireless camera.
How about some electronics grounding that vanadium dioxide? If set up right, when the VO2 transitions to "metallic" above 29C, the panel's photoelectric effect could harness the solar power now more highly available. That in turn could power other devices, like awnings, vent covers, or even fans, to mitigate the heat, using the sun's power against itself.
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make install -not war
That said, I recall that while a significant percentage of heat comes from solar energy through windows... when the house is sitting in a 110 degree plain, it may not be quite as good as first thought.
What amazes me to this day is that a less hi-tech approach would be to plant a frigging tree. Cities here in Southern California still insist on cutting them down (ostensibly to save money from the city maintenance budgets). Without the shade, you get roofs and attic spaces that easily heat up to over 100 degrees and don't cool until 6-7 hours after nightfall.
Usually it's that heavy stuff that can withstand the direct impact of a pigeon (no sparrow jokes, please.)
Good firewall against IP by carrier pigeon.
Where I live (Belo Horizonte, southwestern Brasil) 84F (29C) is room temperature 9 out of the 12 months of the year. In the northern states, it's 11/12. We usually only turn our ACs on at home when it's 37C (100F) and above.
Notwithstanding, this is _great_ (if the yellow tint and the toxicity when broken issues are solved) for car windows. AC won't kick in as often (less gas spent), seats/steering wheel won't get ultra-hot when the vehicle is left under the sun (the beach!!), baby-left-in-the-car dehidration deaths won't happen.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Visible light comes through the window and is absorbed by materials which start radiating that energy as IR. Auto glass is better at transmission of visible light than IR, so inside of car gets hotter. If true, it would help to have better IR transmission than to limit IR transmission.
Ask me about my vow of silence!
And since you're thinking it, that means they already got you. You're compromised. We can't have you at the meetings anymore. Er, I mean, what meetings?
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I've worked in the glass industry for over three years, acutally for one of the direct competitors of the people (Pilkington) who came up with this. Coating glass almost always (90% of the time) requires an insulated (two lites of glass) unit. The coating goes on the inner surface because it is easy to scratch the coating off, and since its a near vaccum inside insulated units they don't have to worry about what ambient conditions will do to the coating. Now the yellow tint will be a non-issue come production time. It realy will be either applying it to glass that is already tinted to cancel out the yellow or they'll modify the formula to get it to appear clear. And the fact that it eventually wears out will either be adjusted for in the R&D process (not likely, too expensive), or offering some kind of warranty on it. It is cheaper to re-produce because of the scale of glass plants, than it would be for the R&D to get another year or two of useful life. The process of coating itself is very very interesting. They pretty much ionize particles to bond at a molecular level to the glass. It's a niche field, but one that is very lucrative because there are not that many people in it. And as far as costs are concerned, it should be rather cheap. Glass itself costs around 1-5 cents (US) per squarefoot. A float glass plant produces around 650 tons of glass a day. The process is really really efficient.
In Tokyo, law requires large buildings to have roof gardens to prevent the roofs from getting so hot. Plants will use that energy to grow, instead of letting that energy hit concrete, metal, etc and become heat. Its estimated that tokyo would be 10 degrees hotter on average without the roof gardens.