FAÇADE & FENESTRATION – DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
Climate change is a pertinent and serious problem faced by the world of construction today. India, being a tropical climate, where cooling is required for the majority of the time in the year, and strategy of the energy efficiency revolves around reducing heat ingress, it is important to understand how a thoughtful façade design can help in making the building the energy-efficient, Direct solar radiation contributes around 80% of the heat ingress through façade.
Unfortunately, we don’t give enough priority to the SHGC of the glass (lower the SHGC, lower the heat ingress in the building through direct solar radiation) and focus mainly on the lower emissivity property. Hence it is important to give proper thought and use technology carefully while designing the façade.
INNOVATIVE MATERIALS
Apart from glass and glazing, framing material also plays an important role in sustainability through façade design. While uPVC seems a promising framing material because of the low U factor. But it has a challenge of rigidity thus size limitation. Aluminium frame solves the purpose of size limitation but it is high on the U factor. These frames with thermal breaks can solve both purposes.
