AGP’s Solux Ultra® low-e glass brings welcome relief in this new build – without sacrificing light and views.
We all want a warm, sunny home, but the unforgiving Aotearoa sun can sometimes be too much of a good thing, especially if your house has a high window-to-wall ratio. Overheating and fading are familiar issues.
This was the problem that faced Anita and Prutvi Kumar with their architectural dream house on the Te Atatū peninsula. The house had been built to maximise natural light with a high window to wall ratio on all three levels, taking in the amazing view down the Waitematā Harbour of Auckland’s harbour bridge and the Sky Tower.
While it has the best view, the main bedroom with its eastern aspect also got the full brunt of the morning sun. With a view like that, as the Kumars rightly observe, you don’t want to be shutting the curtains. “The room would heat up quickly,” says Anita. “It used to be warm and bright, so sleeping in was quite hard.” As a result, just when they wanted to be taking in the view over a morning cup of a coffee, the couple generally kept the curtains closed – for both reasons of comfort, and to protect fabric and carpet in the room.
An abundance of light, and heat
After speaking with both their manufacturer, Door + Window Systems, and AGP, the couple were interested in what options might alleviate the issue. To get a clearer understanding of the issue, an AGP representative visited the site and discovered that while the temperature outside was around 25ºC outside, inside it could be 30ºC or more.
The solution was Solux Ultra® by AGP, a product created with New Zealand’s intense light in mind. Compared to The AGP System with Solux-E®, it offers reduced levels of solar heat gain by a further 23%* and fading protection by an additional 10%*, minimising the need for air conditioning, which is better for the environment.
Now, the temperature in the bedroom stays around a comfortable 20ºC – a result standard low-e glass would require a dark tint to achieve. Solux Ultra®, on the other hand, still allows plenty of natural light without getting in the way of the view. “There's a huge difference,” says Prutvi. “I can feel the warmth is reduced inside and you can feel it on the glass also. It's quite a difference – you can feel the intensity is reduced significantly.”
Year round comfort
That’s in summer. What about winter? The other benefit of Solux Ultra® is that when it’s cold outside, it retains heat by an extra 9%, reflecting the interior warmth back into the room rather than allowing it to escape back outside through the glass. That provides savings on power bills. “We're not losing the heat because it is much more stable,” says Prutvi. “You don't feel it suddenly chilling down when the doors are closed. So the heat loss is definitely less than what it was previously.”
Now that they’ve seen the difference in the bedroom, the Kumars are considering putting it through the entire house. There is an additional cost to it, as Prutvi notes, “but it’s definitely worth doing.”
Reflecting on the change, Door + Window Systems, and AGP mentioned how great it was to deliver an improvement for these homeowners. As the AGP representative notes, it’s a new technology, but an effective one that can make a huge difference to people’s lives. “While we in the glass industry see lots of data on paper, it's been fantastic to actually see it in a project, and really feel the difference the product delivers.”
*For technical references please visit agpl.co.nz/comparisondata
