4 x AGWA Design Awards in 2024: Beach Retreat NSW State and National; Clifton Hill Passive House Primary School VIC State and National.
Glazing - Latest Trends
Would you like thermal comfort, natural acoustics and safety and protection, or all in one?
Glazing companies have now developed glazing to suit highest energy efficiency and comfort:
Viridian
Viridian has released a new type of glazing: Vista Tech and Vista Tech XP. Both are triple glazed Insulating Glass Units (IGU’s) with either 1 coat of Low-E or 2 coats of Low-E coating, and a warm edge spacer.
Viridian mentions that there are minimum sizes of 600mm x 400mm to maximum sizes of 5000mm x 3100mm, subject to component, spacer and weight limitations, and the maximum unit area permitted under AS1288 needs to be considered. Different glass thicknesses as well as a variety of tones are available, and so are some shapes.
Australian Glass Group (AGG)
AGG offer double or triple glazed units with softcoat lowE coating in their ‘Insulglass’ range, from ‘Plus’, ‘Advanced’ and ‘Max’, and provide a whitepaper of their Passive House glass range.
The AGG Insulglass LowE Plus is available in 4mm, 5mm, 6mm 8mm and 10mm options, while Insulglass LowE Advance and Insulglass LowE Max are both available in 6mm and 8mm. These are also subject to component, spacer and weight limitations, and the maximum unit area permitted under AS1288 needs to be considered.
Whole of Window Calculation
Australia follows the Australian Fenestration Rating Council (AFRC) which stem from the North American Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) and shows ‘Whole of Window’ in their calculations. European values are calculated very differently and seem to have lower U-values for the same window. Read moreNew developments in glazing as well as spacer and frame can improve the performance of windows dramatically. Especially during such a cold winter as we suffer through this year, high performing windows and doors can help achieve thermal comfort and energy efficiency.