With energy costs in Australia being as expensive as they are, many home owners are realising their regular windows aren&#;t enough to achieve the energy efficiency there require. Traditional single pane glass windows allows too much air to escape and this translates into higher heating/cool loss in the home.
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One of the ways a home owner can mitigate this is to switch to laminated glass or double glazing at the same time they do a window glass replacement.
Double glazing involves adding an insulated layer between two separate glass panels, while laminated glass involves permanently bonding two distinct layers of glass. As opposed to an ordinary single pane of glass, double glazed windows are reinforced with an extra layer to provide extra strength.The most common option is a double glazed system, which usually includes the use of two frames, two glass panes, and two different thicknesses of glass. Go here to find out more about double glazed windows.
Laminated glass is made from a thin layer of glass bonded together by a material called an electroless nickel layer. The result is a glass panel that provides protection against moisture and other airborne contaminants, a state known as a tempered glass. The standard size for laminated glass is between 5 and 9mm in thickness compared with regular glass which is 3-4mm. You can find out more about laminated and toughened glass in this article.
Double glazing offers several significant advantages when it comes to reducing heat loss in the home. Firstly, the pane of glass has a thickened insulation layer, reducing heat loss when the windows are open. This insulation layer also protects the inner glass from UV radiation.
Laminated glass offers great thermal insulation properties which enable you to take advantage of the potential savings in heating/cooling costs. If you are looking to improve the appearance of your home while offering energy efficiency, you can easily do this by switching to laminated glass.
Both double glazing and laminated glass are better choices than regular glass when it comes to improving energy efficiency in your home.
Laminated glass is less expensive to install and hence has become a popular option in Sydney homes.
In terms of performance, double glazing exceeds laminated glass in terms of energy efficiency and acoustics (noise reduction).
Sound
Anyone who has ridden in a luxury automobile has likely noticed the dramatic difference in perceived interior noise between luxury and economy cars. Today, the same technology used to dampen noise in cars is being used in building architecture. In many building types ranging from concert halls and office buildings to homes and schools, isolating interior spaces from exterior noise is critical, and laminated glass effectively reduces sound transmission between indoor and outdoor spaces.
Sound transmission through glass or any other building material is related to the limp/mass law. The heavier and more flexible the building material is, the better it will be at reducing sound transmissions. Because ordinary monolithic glass is essentially lightweight and very stiff, it tends to transmit more sound than other building materials.
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A PVB interlayer increases glazing Sound Transmission Loss (STL) without significantly increasing the glass thickness or mass of a glazing system.
As with monolithic glass, the sound isolation performance of insulating glass can be increased significantly through the use of laminated glass.
Adding laminated glass to a glazing system is one of the best ways to optimize performance. The PVB interlayer effectively absorbs significantly higher levels of soundwaves than monolithic glass, thus creating a greater sound barrier. Adding a pane of laminated glass to an insulating glazing system gives the unit an even higher Sound Transmission Class (STC), blocking more soundwaves.
The key to creating an acoustically insulated indoor environment is to select products with a high STC, which is used by acoustical engineers as a measure of a building materials' resistance to the passage of sound. The higher the STC, the better the sound barrier.
A This figure
presents a comparison between two 25.4mm
(1 inch) insulating glass configurations,
one using two lites of 6mm (1/4 inch)
monolithic glass and the other using two
lites of 6mm (1/4 inch) laminated glass
(LAG). The 6mm (1/4 inch) laminated glass
consisted of two lites of 3mm (1/8 inch)
monolithic glass laminated together with
0.76mm (0.030 inch) PVB interlayer. As
a reference, the STL for 12.7mm (1/2 inch)
monolithic glass is provided.
The three glass configurations have nearly the same overall glazing weight, but the combination of air space (A.S.) and interlayer results in an STL for the double laminated insulating configuration which is significantly higher than that for either standard insulating or monolithic glass.
Acoustic performance is especially critical in airports and surrounding structures, hotels, restaurants, and schools. At the San Francisco Airport International Terminal, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, LLP, laminated glass dampens noise of runway activity and overhead air traffic and provides seismic protection. On the other coast, the Westin New York hotel in Times Square, designed by Arquitectonica, uses insulating laminated glass with high-performance coatings to minimize outside noise from busy midtown Manhattan. The innovative design features a colored glass panel exterior that blocks sound and provides guests with a quiet indoor oasis in New York City.
Use of laminated glass for noise reduction provides building occupants with the highest level of environmental comfort. The glass blocks noise and lets in natural light. In addition to walls and windows, laminated glass can also be used in interior applications such as floors, shower and bath enclosures, partitions and room dividers, elevators, and doors.
In these applications, laminated glass helps eliminates the "cocktail effect" in interior spaces, in which multiple voices, noise sources, and reverberations occur in an occupied space. A room with high noise absorption will yield an environment that is conducive to improved hearing and higher productivity.
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