HarWin project – new lightweight windows being researched

[Anonymous]

Since triple glazing is very heavy (expensive!) the EU is researching in it's HarWin project new glazing methods.

In particular triple glazing (three layers of glass panes ) must become lighter, the present weight being to heavy. High weights mean high costs, therefore standard triple glazing methods don't pay (no investment/energetic amortisation) when used for standard thermal insulation aplications.

The aproach is to construct triple glazing units which can be installed in double-glazing frames, using leight weight materials (plastic panes, thinner glas panes, combining the two materials etc.).

There are thousand of hits in foreign languages using google , but only 1 in English – so far:

http://www.iesve.com/research/current-projects/harwin

(Well, now with this posting there should be 2 hits)

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PS
Not only the weight must be reduced but the lifetime must be increased as well. Standard triple glazing performs for 10-20 years.
The HarWin project aims at a minimum lifetime for 30 years.

[Anonymous]

There are thousand of hits in foreign languages using google , but only 1 in English – so far

Well, a European research project has a better web presence than one page on a participant's website, of course, and google finds it easily. Here's a page about the project on the CORDIS site:

http://cordis.europa.eu/search/index.cfm?fuseaction=proj.document&PJ_LANG=EN&PJ_RCN=13049415&pid=30&q=57F24203FFB3C3496B6EF75CC25158DE&type=pro

Good to know that at least EUR 3 438 313 of our tax money is being spent on something that might beuseful! This page lists all four similar projects that were started recently:

http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=FP7_PROJ_EN&QZ_WEBSRCH=EeB.NMP.2012-5&QM_PJA=&USR_SORT=EN_QVD+CHAR+DESC

[David Olivier]

I or any Canadian or US window company could tell them how to make glazing with the U-value of eight panes of glass and the weight of a single 4 mm pane. Clue … just buy some mass-market US windows and take apart the sealed unit, where you will find 2 to 2.5 mm heat-strengthened glass.

If they care to buy my book in due course, they can learn more for a lot less than several million Euros!

[Tom Foster]

glazing with the U-value of eight panes of glass and the weight of a single 4 mm pane

give us a clue?

my book in due course

what? when?

[Anonymous]

my book in due course

what? when?

I'm with Tom. When? If it hasn't been printed yet, I'd love to proof-read it, and I promise to buy a copy when it does come out 🙂

[Mark Siddall]

Dave,
Well noted. In that case I have this particular research wrongly associated with what I saw in Hannover. The work presented at the conference was considerably well developed – it heard about samples of flexible ultra thin glass (0.3mm?) and saw photos of a glazing unit in a frame system. Pretty impressive.

….sounds like this other lot have some catching up to do.

[Author]

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