Modern metal building owners are more and more often asking for ways to bring natural light into their buildings. The main reason is energy savings—if the sun can illuminate your building, you don’t need to turn on the lights. The other reason is that it’s been proven that employees are more productive when they’re working under some natural light. Bringing natural light into your building is the right thing to do—but it’s harder than it looks!
Frameless engineered light diffusing glass panel systems are a cost-effective solution
How the panels attach to the primary structure.
The first challenge is glare. We’ve all been in those dark buildings with that one blinding shaft of light that makes it impossible to function and brightens only one spot in the building. The way to deal with that is to diffuse the light effectively to minimize the glare and spread the light evenly throughout the building.
Your next challenge is insulation. Normal low-E insulated glass units have center of glass insulation values of R-3 and that can drop as low as R-2 when you include thermal loss through the aluminum framing. Engineered light diffusing glass panel systems can distribute light broadly in a building and have insulating values as high as R-25.
The final challenge is cost. Aluminum framing systems take time to install and glass can’t be ordered until the skeleton of the framing is in place. This directly adds cost, time and complexity to the install.
How the panels fit together.
Glass-based engineered light diffusers are available without framing. The glass panels install directly onto the primary structure, analogously to insulated metal panels (IMPs). They can integrate directly with IMP as well. They are thicker panels with larger spacers that have structural properties and a tongue-in-groove design that allow them to fit together similarly to IMP. A simple adapter allows direct integration with IMP.
Glass fiber veils are bonded to surface 2 and surface 3 on the glass panes to provide soft, diffuse light. A honeycomb structure between the glass panes breaks up convection patterns to provide very high levels of insulation. Finally, Aerogel can fill the pockets of the honeycomb to provide extreme levels of insulation where needed.
The frameless glass panels can be specified in specification section 084500 Translucent Wall Panels.
These glass translucent wall panels can be installed by the same contractor team responsible for the building exterior envelope.
Joe Menchefski, B. Eng., MBA, is a sales and marketing consultant to Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada-based Advanced Glazings Ltd., makers of SoleraWall. To learn more, visit www.advancedglazings.com.