How healthy are your windows?
This is not a question posed to Facilities Managers very often but the affect that windows have on the working environment is not to be under estimated.
More than any other building aspect, windows have an impact on everything we do. It is not human nature to be sealed away in a box and so it is the windows in our surrounding environment that broaden our working and living experience.
The period we have been through, when architectural glazing dominated design, has highlighted both the pros and cons of the use of glass. In general, does glazing help us to work ‘healthily’ or does it have a negatively affect upon us? The issues with glass all revolve around the fact that it is, in the main, transparent. We can see through it and at the same time, the sun streams through it. We want the natural daylight, however it comes with rays that do not help us study and work.
Now, there’s an interesting term; natural daylight. Architects have re-invented it in the last decade and in some fields like education they call it ‘Daylighting’. Designers have been telling FMs what they already knew, that daylight and outlook are good for staff and help people perform better. There has been plenty written about this over the years. For instance, a study undertaken in 2003 by Heschong Malone Group found that workers in a Call Centre – a pressurised environment where productivity is key – performed 6% faster when their external view was good. An earlier study by the same organisation, this time in the educational field found that a group of people learning under most natural daylight progressed 20% faster than those subjected to the least daylight.
So natural daylight has a positive affect and the feel-good factor contributes to the overall feeling of wellness. However, daylight inevitably comes with that negative side effect – glare. In a series of mini-tests covering memory, mental function and visual acuity undertaken by Heschong Malone, glare showed up as the key factor. The participants performed up to 17% worse in memory and 21% worse in mental function and visual acuity when glare was prevalent.
Eyes are a key factor in a healthy working environment, particularly for those working on computers. The most frequently reported workplace symptom is eyestrain at 78% and eye and vision problems are experienced by three quarters of all computer workers. Eyestrain very often leads on to more serious health problems and illness and glare is a major contributor to this.
The final factor in the equation of how ‘healthy’ windows are is heat gain. This will almost certainly become more of an issue with the generally accepted forecast that summers are going to get hotter in the UK resulting in the Government issuing a ‘Heatwave’ guide.
When people are excessively hot at work not only does productivity drop but accidents are more likely to happen. A study undertaken by Wyon et al in the USA some while ago found that at 75°F productivity fell by 40% when compared to 68°F. Another study by Vernon et al, based on the same temperature differentials, showed that accidents are 30% more likely to occur. Low productivity and health problems created by excess heat and glare are a drain on resource and a costly burden on any organisation’s budget.
Transmitted heat can render areas near windows as non-working areas when a study by Hartkopf found that a window location is one of the main influences leading to a 20 – 25% reduction in staff health complaints.
Is there a solution to the negative affects of glazing on the working environment? Some people feel that closing blinds is the solution but this reduces natural daylight (the single biggest contributor to the feeling of wellbeing) and can create greater glare issues. In any case, closing the blinds does not stop the heat rays from entering the building – so doing this only delays the inevitable.
This is where the latest innovations in solar control window film technology come in. Window film works on the simple premise that it is better to keep the extremes of glare and heat out of the building in the first place. Such are the developments that there are effective solar control window films that allow through almost as much natural daylight as glass.
And one last factor. When heat is allowed into the workplace inevitably fans, cooling devices and air conditioning are switched on and switched up to disperse it. This adds to the building’s carbon footprint and wastes energy.
So applying solar control window film can result in a healthier bank balance too.
Read MoreEuropean Schools Use Window Film
We have had more than a decade in which there has been a design preoccupation with large expanses of glass combined with air conditioning to cool things down, because, not surprisingly, glass facia create heat gain situations.
So it is good to see that those involved in school design are focusing much more on a balance between daylight and ventilation, using nature to create a better study environment. This makes sense as a research study undertaken by Heshong Mahone Group found that a group of people learning under most natural daylight progressed 20% faster than those subjected to the least daylight.
For existing educational buildings and the hundreds of thousands of windows not scheduled for major refurbishment under the BSF scheme there is a way to improve the study environment as it is simply to restrain the suns’ rays in the first place. Solar control window film filters out more than 70% of the heat and the glare. Modern high technology films also allow high levels of natural daylight resulting in a study environment that is much more pleasant and productive and where glare on computer screens is reduced.
Many believe that closing blinds is a solution – but this does not stop the direct heat from entering the building – it just slows down the time it takes to permeate around. The educational sector contributes approximately 15% of the carbon emissions from the public sector as a whole, which is one reason why Ed Balls appointed a Task Force to look into it. With increasingly hot summers it has become apparent that cooling is a major contributor to carbon emissions and most people have been slow to recognise just how much air conditioning, powered by fossil fuel driven energy, is contributing to our carbon footprint.
The idea of keeping the suns’ heat out of the building therefore makes financial as well as environmental sense and some studies show that solar control window film pays for itself in less than five years.
Every weekday in the UK window film is being installed in educational buildings. It is used for health & safety reasons and to meet the workplace regulations but a lot could be achieved at the same time by using solar control window film to improve the study environment.
Read MoreWinter Energy Saving Window Films
“Japan’s leading diversified materials manufacturer Nitto Denko Corporation developed a novel transparent window film featuring the industry’s highest-level thermal insulation along with solar heat rejection, which allows users to achieve energy savings year-round, the company announced today. When applied to glass windows, this film product rejects approximately 40% of solar heat as well as 99% of UV, so that cooling load would be greatly reduced in summer. Moreover, the product’s unique feature is that it can reduce heat flow through windows by approximately 35% and help maintain indoor warmth during winter. The product can be used for windows of residential homes and office buildings, in addition to display chillers and transportation vehicle windows. The company will engage in product test marketing in the first half of fiscal year (FY) 2012, which will lead to an official product debut in the latter half of the year.”
Japanese climate is on average a bit colder than in the USA. The comparable climate for the Japanese Islands would be similar to the region from Nova Scotia, Canada to Maryland. Summers may be quite hot, but long cold winters are also a normal.
Window film traditionally does the best during summers by rejecting solar heat. During winter, although there are some insulation properties to average window film, it’s performance is not as strong.
There are a couple window films in the domestic USA market that have insulating thermal properties for colder climates.
Nitto Denko’s product performance seems to be similar to Sungards Low E with solar rejection percentages around 40% and thermal insulation percentage of 35%. The US window film manufacturers traditionally use the U Value to measure how well building element (like windows or window tint) conduct heat.
The film has a U Value of .75. Standard single glazed window with normal glass typically have U Value of around 5 and high performance windows with double glazed glass and Low-E Argon gas filling has a U Value of 1.5.
Installing this form of at .75 U Value represents halving the heat loss of even high performance insulated windows.
AOL Autos Recommends Window Tint
AOL Autos recently wrote up an article about ways to keep your car cool.
“Window tinting is very effective in lowering interior temperatures. However, there are different rules regulating window tinting for every state. Some states prohibit tinting of the front windows so police officers can see into a vehicle during a traffic stop. Other states allow tinting, but the degree of tinting is defined, which varies from state to state. So before having your vehicle’s windows tinted, check with your state DMV to make sure you don’t break any laws.”
It is nice to see that the effectiveness of window tint is starting to be realized by mainstream media. Window tint is not just for the young and reckless who want to look cool, the criminals who have something to hide, or the celebrities protecting their privacy. There is a very practical use to window tint to protect your own health from the heat and UV of the harsh sun.
It is true that each state has its own individual tint laws regarding what is legal and what is not. Be sure to check out the tint laws in your state before you tint.
Sun Safety and Window Tint
Sun safety should be practiced at all stages in life. From infants to adults, it has been shown that your risk for skin cancer later in life increases in direct proportion to the amount of sun over-exposure. Sun safety is especially important for infants and babies whose skin contain just a little melanin, the pigment in the skin that offers protection from the sun. Without this added layer of protection, the child is much more susceptible to sub burns. Parents should try to monitor exposure at all times whether the child is out in the open, in the car, or even at home near windows.
TPGonlinedaily has tips regarding child sun safety. One tip recommends installing window tint on the windows in the car. If you do not like the “Dark” look of window tintint, there is UV blocking film that is completely clear without any tint added. These films do not have as good heat-rejection qualities as film with heavier tinting, but they do block 99% of UV radiation. These clear UV window tint is available for purchase at Tint Atlanta.
Of course, some exposure to sunlight does good to the body. Your skin requires 10-15 minutes of sunlight every day for your body to manufacture the a daily dose of vitamin D. A natural source of vitamin D is cod liver oil which can be used to supplement your body’s protection. Beyond this 10-15 minutes every day, practice sun safety with window film, sunblock, and your common sense.
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