|
Glass Walls & Roofs
Smart Glass High Performance Glass
With the introduction of
our new glass offering, C-Thru now offers a new high performance single pane
product and a new “SmartGlass” family of double pane high performance glass
products that outperform all competitive products in their class. Why are
we doing this? For two reasons …. (1) To give you, our Dealers, an even
greater competitive edge, and (2) because more than any other component in
a sunroom or patio room, the type of glass used will determine the comfort
and usability of the finished sunroom. Let’s take a brief look at why the
performance of glass is so important. What it all boils down to is this …
the two biggest problems with sunrooms and patio rooms has to do with excess
heat gain, which makes the rooms uncomfortably hot; and Ultraviolet
radiation which fades and damages fabrics and furnishings. Here’s why these
are major issues for your clients
Solar Heat Gain:
We’ve all had the experience of parking our car at the mall on a nice sunny
day, then returning to the car an hour or so later to find that it’s an oven
inside. Just like an automobile, sunrooms and patio rooms are
glass-intensive structures which make them susceptible to overheating.
Up to 90% of the surface area of a sunroom or patio room may be glass, so
the performance of the glass has a direct and significant affect on the
comfort and usability of the room. What sense does it make for your
clients to invest in sunrooms or patio rooms that overheat so quickly that
they can only be used comfortably on mild days in the Spring or Fall?
Ultraviolet
Radiation:
It is widely know that UV radiation is harmful and damaging, to people as
well as to fabrics and furnishings. Glass products that transmit a high
percentage of UV radiation will result in faster fading and damage to
fabrics and furnishings that are used in that room. More importantly,
homeowners who regularly spend time in these rooms may receive unsafe
exposure to harmful UV radiation
SmartGlasstm
30
The first
product in our line of high-performance glass products is a
single pane glass, which goes by the name SmartGlass 30.
This new product has 30% lower solar transmission than ordinary
clear single pane glass (and 30% less UV transmission). What this
means is that a competitor’s room equipped with clear single pane
glass will heat up 30% faster than a C-Thru room.
SmartGlass 30 has the same high optical clarity and same visual
appearance as regular single pane glass; it’s only on a very, very
close inspection that one might notice a very, very subtle green
hue. SmartGlass 30 is so effective that it even outperforms
single pane bronze glass by 8%, and without the “dirty” look of
ordinary bronze tinted glass. Clear single pane glass will still be
our low cost standard, but SmartGlass 30 will be available
for a modest upcharge.
SmartGlasstm
40
The next product
in our line of high-performance glass offerings is a double pane
product, which goes by the name SmartGlass 40. This product
consists of an outer pane of 1/8” green glass over an inner pane of
1/8” clear. This new product has 20% lower solar transmission than
ordinary double pane clear glass (and 26% less UV transmission).
What this means is that a competitor’s room equipped with clear
single pane glass will heat up 20% faster than a C-Thru room
equipped with SmartGlass 40. SmartGlass 40 has the same high
optical clarity and same visual appearance as ordinary double pane
glass; it’s only on a very, very close inspection that one might
notice a very subtle green hue. SmartGlass 40 is so
effective that it even outperforms double pane bronze glass by 5%,
and without the “dirty” look of ordinary bronze tinted glass.
Other’s bronze double pane glass products also block 23% more
visible light than C-Thru’s SmartGlass 40. While not the
highest performing SmartGlass offering, SmartGlass 40 is a smart
choice when trying to balance performance with affordability.
The last two high-performance glass products represent a significant
improvement over our old Smart Glass, and are called SmartGlass
60 and SmartGlass 90EZ. Both of these are double pane
glass products that incorporate a unique multi-layered low-e coating
applied to the inside of the outboard pane of glass. This
incredible coating blocks far higher levels of the sun’s invisible
solar heat and harmful UV radiation.
SmartGlasstm
60
SmartGlass 60
is an optional high performance double pane glass (replacing our old
Smart Glass) for use in vertical glazing areas, such as
windows, doors, kickpanels and transoms. It provides your clients
with 60% less solar heat gain per s.f./hr than clear double pane
glass, and 28% lower transmission of damaging and harmful UV
radiation than our former high performance “Smart Glass”. The solar
shading performance of this glass is so remarkable that your clients
can actually pull a chair up next to a south-facing window, and sit
down and read a book without experiencing that “radiator effect”
that one normally feels sitting next to a sunlit window.
SmartGlasstm
90EZ
SmartGlass 90EZ
will be used only in sloped, overhead applications such as
glass-roofed sunrooms. Traditionally, in glass-roofed rooms, most
of the excess heat gain that enters the sunroom comes through the
overhead glass because the sun tends to be higher in the sky in
summer. To combat this problem, and also to reduce the potential
for glare in a glass-intensive room, SmartGlass 90EZ will reduce the
solar and UV transmission to less than half that of our old
Smart Glass. To enhance the performance of SmartGlass 90EZ, the
inboard pane of this product is the same high performance green
glass used in SmartGlass 30. By utilizing two layers of high
performance glass in the same unit, SmartGlass 90EZ achieves
solar shading performance unmatched by any other manufacturer,
blocking up to 83% of the sun’s harmful and damaging UV radiation
and 84% of unwanted solar heat transmission.
So in Summer, when
the sun is higher in the sky, this unique new roof glass will keep
the room cooler and more usable, and in Spring, when the sun is
lower in the sky, our vertical SmartGlass 60 will enable you to
benefit from low levels of passive solar gain to help heat the room.
SmartGlass 90EZ has 50% less visible light transmission to
help reduce glare associated with overhead glass in summer, and to
block an astounding 85% of total solar energy transmission.
SmartGlass 90EZ is more than twice as effective as most of
our competitor’s extra-cost low-e double pane offerings,
significantly extending the number of hours that your clients can
comfortably use their rooms during the heat of summer months.
And since it will be used only in a sloped overhead
application, SmartGlass 90EZ incorporates a special “EZ Clean”
coating on the #1 (exterior) surface of the glass. The application
of this unique silicone dioxide coating makes the glass surface
smoother, which causes water to sheet-out rather than forming water
drops on the surface. The unique EZ Clean coating allows water to
evaporate quickly meaning less water spots on the surface when it
dries. The EZ Clean coating can be “activated” immediately after
installation simply by spraying the surface of the glass with a
solution of vinegar and water.
SMART
GLASS PERFORMANCE SUMMARY
SmartGlasstm
30
·
30% less heat gain vs. Clear single pane
·
30% less UV transmission vs. Clear single pane
·
8% less heat gain vs. Bronze single pane
·
No tinted, dirty appearance like Bronze single pane glass
SmartGlasstm
40
·
20% less heat gain vs. Clear double pane
·
26% less UV transmission vs. Clear double pane
·
5% less heat gain vs. Bronze double pane
·
23% less blockage of light vs. Bronze double pane
·
No tinted, dirty appearance like Bronze double pane
SmartGlasstm
60
·
60% less heat gain vs. Clear double pane
·
38% less heat gain vs. Bronze double pane (or Low-e double pane)
·
50% less UV transmission vs. Clear double pane
·
33% less UV transmission vs. Bronze double pane (or Low-e double
pane)
SmartGlasstm
90EZ
·
Five times less heat gain vs. Clear double pane
·
Blocks 83% of harmful UV radiation
·
EZ-Clean standard with SmartGlass 90
·
Less than one-half the glare of clear double pane roof glass
·
40% less glare than bronze double pane roof glass
|