Infrared-blocking electrochromic glazing
With buildings consuming up to 40 percent of total energy, the race to develop more efficient windows is accelerating. Companies like Sage Electrochromics and View offer smart windows that can actively reduce solar heat gain by filtering visible light dynamically.
Scientists at a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory incubator company called Heliotrope recently announced what they consider to be a superior technology. Like its competitor’s products, the Heliotrope glass can be reversibly-tinted. However, it offers the additional advantage of infrared radiation obstruction while transparent, offering additional energy savings without dimming the view.
Based on a composite made of indium tin oxide nanocrystals in niobium oxide glass, the new electrochromic technology offers three settings: full transparency, transparency while blocking the IR spectrum, and blocking both the visible and IR spectrum. According to LBL researchers, the new composite also promises to be relatively cost-effective. Heliotrope scientists plan to create small window prototypes in less than three years.
Contact: Heliotrope, Alameda, CA, USA.
