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General: EWI like a polar bear

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  1.  
    • CommentAuthorTimber
    • CommentTimeJul 23rd 2012
     
    http://www.building4change.com/page.jsp?id=1339
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeJul 23rd 2012
     
    Fascinating what they come up with!

    Was a bit worried until I got to the last para though, because there is such a thing as too much solar gain. :bigsmile:
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeJul 23rd 2012 edited
     
    I thought that the hollow polar bear fur transferring heat to the skin was debunked years ago (Koon, 1988):
    http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears/bear-essentials-polar-style/characteristics/fur-and-skin
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeJul 23rd 2012
     
    "Their experiments showed that a one-fifth inch strand of polar bear hair conducted less than a thousandth of a percent of applied ultraviolet light."

    Heat?
    • CommentAuthordjh
    • CommentTimeJul 23rd 2012
     
    "External wall insulation system (EWIS) specialist Sto has brought its StoSolar solid wall heating system concept from Germany to the UK market."

    sto.co.uk: "Your searchstring " StoSolar" did not match any documents."

    sto.de: " 1 bis 10 von 38 Ihr Suchbegriff "StoSolar" wurde auf folgenden Seiten gefunden"

    There are quite a few transparent insulation products around. It'd be nice to find one that is available, with a reasonable price, and some kind of certificate.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeJul 23rd 2012 edited
     
    Posted By: djhThere are quite a few transparent insulation products around. It'd be nice to find one that is available, with a reasonable price, and some kind of certificate.

    Can get windows filled with aerogel, they work.
  7.  
    I looked at this stuff at ECOBuild. Superficially it looks like a really good idea, until you look at the underlying U-Value of the product. I can't remember the precise figure, but it was truly awful (compared to the kind of targets we're all encouraged to aim for on this forum).

    Then you factor in that when you really need the insulation most, i.e. in the depths of winter, there's only light for a third of the day, the other two thirds are dark, and what light does exist is usually fairly poor, so the U-value dominates massively over any solar gain.

    Not sure this really sounds a good idea.

    (It gets even worse if it isn't really very good at blocking light in the summer and could lead to severe overheating....)
    • CommentAuthorjpnp
    • CommentTimeJul 23rd 2012
     
    I'd have thought that excess summer solar gain is easier to deal with in this type of product than in windows used for internal light. You could easily imagine external shutters which could be closed at whichever point in the year summer finally decides to arrive.

    Obviously the real issue with a pretty neat idea is the U-value.

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