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Aren’t new windows often coated with something opaque to IR, that way they keep heat in during winter and don’t heat up like a greenhouse in the summer?
by dan-robertson 4y ago
Aren’t new windows often coated with something opaque to IR, that way they keep heat in during winter and don’t heat up like a greenhouse in the summer?
- HPsquared 4y agoThose are low-emissivity coatings. Very effective in reducing radiative heat transfer. This is why the glass in a vacuum flask is silvered: metals have low emissivity. These coatings aim to have low IR emissivity while still allowing visible light through (IR light gets reflected, instead of absorbed/emitted). My point was only that a vacuum gap is still not a perfect insulator, so it's an economic trade-off.