Over the years, the meaning of ‘home’ has changed manifold. Now, a ‘home’ has more character, personality, and functionality than ever before. Urban homes have become more open and much more innovative to match the fast-paced lives of city dwellers.
Yet, many problems persist. Most homes lack appropriate fenestrations, designs, etc., to handle the ever-rising global temperature and climate change. Meanwhile, our energy consumption rates are skyrocketing with increased reliance on heating and cooling systems.
Energy efficiency is the need of the hour, and it calls for a transformation – a transformation best offered by the glass! As renowned French-Swedish architect Le Corbusier, puts it, “Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house and the city.”
What Is Reflective Glass?
Reflective glass is annealed or standard glass that has a thin layer of metallic or metallic oxide coating. Since this coating is applied to only one side of the glass, it has a mirror-like appearance.
This reflective coating is applied during the float process to enhance the amount of heat reflected by the glass. It can absorb and reflect the sun’s harmful UV and infrared rays yet allow natural visible light to pass through. It also prevents excessive solar glare. However, it does allow natural light to pass through, offering optimal daylighting.
Benefits of Reflective glass
For those people who are eco-friendly and believe in energy efficiency, opting for solar control glass or reflective glass can be the best choice! There are many benefits and advantages of using these types of glass.
Energy-Efficient Fenestrations
Did you know that 90% of heat gain happens through windows and doors? To prevent your home from feeling like a sauna, you can use reflective glass for fenestration. This is because it lowers heat gain and the differential in temperature to provide a cosy ambience.
It will absorb and reflect a significant amount of the outside heat and keep you cool during the summers! What’s more, you can bring down your energy bills by cutting down the use of artificial lighting and heating and cooling systems.
Optimal Glare Management
Solar glare causes more harm than you think. Did you know that excessive exposure to solar glare can harm your eyesight? However, with reflective glass, you can keep those harms at bay.
As reflective glass impacts Visible Light Transmittance (VLT), it reduces solar glare but allows natural light to flood in. It also reflects a significant portion of the harmful solar radiation, offering excellent glare management.
Superior Daylighting
With reflective glass, you get to enjoy the two primary benefits of daylight, that is, reduced reliance on artificial lighting and lowered electricity costs. It allows natural light to pass through, creating brighter and cheerful interiors throughout the day.
Moreover, reflective glass distributes the diffused light across the space to reduce solar glare while keeping the indoors smelling fresh and airy. Besides that, daylight has a direct impact on your productivity, mood, and overall well-being. Thus, premium daylighting means premium health!
Perfect Privacy Solution
Quit worrying about nosy strangers and peeping-toms by installing reflective glass windows. Thanks to the protective coating on their surface, they offer 100% visual privacy during the day. You do not need to add curtains or blinds as it completely obscures visibility.
Anyone outside your home will not be able to see the inside as it obstructs one-way visibility. However, you can have an unobstructed view of the outside without worrying about privacy violations. Indeed, it is a perfect privacy solution.
Aesthetic Galore
The versatility of reflective glass is no joke! From tints, patterns to a wide variety of shades, there are many design options to choose from. Architects and interior designers can set new benchmarks in design, style, and comfort with reflective glass.
Moreover, it works well with several architectural elements, from metal panels, spandrels to frames. It is a dynamic architectural element in that its appearance changes with any change in the sky. Best of all, it has a natural sheen and glossy finish, making it a visual delight.
Where Can it Be Used?
Primarily, reflective glass solutions are used to combat the rising rate of energy consumption – as it blocks the solar heat and glare from entering inside. Several architectural designs are used as green, sustainable elements for their high performance against heat ingress and delectable visual appeal.
Here are some typical applications of reflective glass.
Structural Façade Glazing
For building façade, nothing works better than glass – glimmering as the sun hits its surface, reflecting the changing sky; indeed, a visual masterpiece. Yet, at the same time, the building’s interiors can suffer from solar glare and overheating.
This is why most structural façade glazing is done using reflective glass. It minimises heat ingress and solar glare to lower reliance on AC units, keeping the indoors cooler throughout the day.
In the range of products offered by AIS Glass, AIS Opal is a perfect fit for structural façade glazing. It provides excellent solar-control properties to keep the building’s interiors from heating up.
Glass Windows
In residential and commercial structures, around 90% of the heat enters through windows. To counter this, you may install reflective glass windows for their effective solar-control properties.
They block out UV and IR rays and excessive heat from seeping in a while, allowing natural light to flood the interior space, offering a brighter, comprehensive look indoors. You get optimum daylighting without the disadvantage of overheating.
Skylights
While brilliant for daylighting needs and facilitating indoor-outdoor living, skylights can increase interior heating after being exposed to the sun 24×7.
Therefore, to reduce overheating and solar glare, skylights made of reflective glass windows work supremely well. Their solar control properties are highly beneficial in absorbing most UV rays falling on them, lowering heat gain in the process.
Reflective Glass: Popularity and Misconceptions Go Hand-in-Hand
Contemporary spaces are all about creating the right blend of style and practicality, and glass is integral. Today, glass is not about fragility but rather innovative engineering and efficient usage, as glass structures can be designed to offer a sense of luxury while simultaneously providing benefits such as privacy, temperature regulation, security, etc.
Modern homeowners often opt for glass panels, doors, chambers, sliders, etc., to give their space a minimal yet luxurious tone. A significant part of this is reflective glass, with its numerous benefits and sleek design. Its practicality and wide availability have made reflective glass a go-to for many vehicles, businesses, and homeowners as well, especially since renovators or architects themselves often recommend it.
However, since it is still relatively new, several myths surround it and its implementation in modern spaces. However, it is time to bust these myths, so let’s look at what they are and why they aren’t true.
The Myths Debunked
Reflective Glass is an Unworthy Investment
One of the most common myths about reflective glass is how it is an utter waste of money since it often turns purple, bubbles are spread throughout the film, or simply because they haven’t been built to last forever. However, we’ve all heard the adage, “nothing lasts forever,” which applies to this as well. However, such claims about this glass can only be valid when you install them without professional help. When appropriately installed, reflective glass can last almost two decades while providing you with numerous benefits such as maintaining privacy, low maintenance, controlling the sun’s glare that enters your space, and more.
Age is a Reflective Glass’ Enemy
People usually prefer to purchase long-lasting, durable materials when decorating or establishing their space. While this applies to almost every material, many completely disband reflective glass of being the same and blatantly blame it for not being long-lasting. It’s the opposite, as a professionally installed, high-quality one will actually last you quite long, and it will even continue to be sleek and beautiful, rather than its colours fading away.
All Show and No Go
Another common myth about reflective glass that is quite common among many homeowners is how it is just for cosmetic purposes and only adds to the appearance of a space. That is mainly untrue because reflective glasses provide several benefits that make them necessary for many modern homes:
- Reflective glasses are the perfect solution for maintaining privacy since the people outside cannot see through them.
- They reduce the amount of glare that enters your space, blocking out the harmful UV rays.
- They’re also available with a low-E coating, which will help your area earn Energy Star and LEED credits as well.
These are just a few of the many benefits of installing reflective glass.
Reflective Glasses are Tough to Clean
Many also consider reflective glass to be problematic when it comes to maintenance and cleaning. That’s yet another myth that makes no sense, as you can clean the reflective glasses the same way as other glasses. The only thing to be kept in mind is to check the film’s specifications for detailed instructions. Other than that, your cleaning routine will be the same, irrespective of the installed reflective glass.
The AIS Advantage
As an energy-efficient solution, reflective glass windows are incredibly beneficial. They offer numerous advantages like visual comfort, daylighting, energy savings, enhanced privacy, premium aesthetics, and flexibility of design to its users. And they’re suitable for several internal and external glazing applications.
At AIS Glass, we offer high-quality glazing solutions for all your architectural needs, and you can choose from a diverse range of best-in-class, customisable products. We offer world-class quality reflective glass in various shades, styles, sizes, and thicknesses.
Are you looking for reflective glass solutions? Get in touch with us today!d reflective glass.