Houston, TX – March 31, 2020 – INOVUES, an award-winning window technology company focused on non-intrusive building upgrades and energy efficiency retrofits, announced today its first installation on a commercial building in the United States.
INOVUES Glazing Shields were installed on the windows of select conference rooms at Saint-Gobain Research North America in Northborough, Massachusetts—one of the largest research centers for one of the 100 most innovative companies in the world. The installation was completed on December 16 and was performed by Lockheed Window Corp. from the exterior without disruption to the building’s functionality or its occupants.
INOVUES Glazing Shield™ is a non-intrusive glazing retrofit system that enables the windows of existing buildings to be upgraded and incorporate the latest energy-efficient and smart window glass technologies without removing, replacing, drilling, or altering any existing components. The adaptable system, which can be securely mounted on the original glass from the interior or exterior, can transform most single- or double-pane windows and curtain walls into high-performing multi-pane systems. The technology, which uses the existing windows and glass as part of the solution, can provide very similar performance results to the new high-performing replacement options but with ~70% fewer materials and at a fraction of the cost and time it takes to remove and replace the original windows.
INOVUES installed its GS100LF model of the Glazing Shield system, which was fabricated at Momentum Glass' recently expanded 101,000 sq. ft. curtain wall manufacturing facility in Houston, Texas. The GS100LF units, which incorporates low-e laminated safety glass, transformed the existing 20+ years old windows from double-glazed to triple-glazed. This doubled the insulation of the glass, cutting heat loss in half and providing better indoor thermal and acoustic comfort. The thermal images below compare two identical, adjacent conference rooms at the same time, one with INOVUES Glazing Shields and one without. The windows retrofitted with the Glazing Shields had a 12 °F (6.6 °C) higher interior surface temperature compared to the non-retrofitted windows—the interior surface temperature of the retrofitted windows reached 70 °F (21 °C) while the outside temperature was around 26 °F (-3 °C). This is significant because the interior surface temperature of the retrofitted windows matched the indoor temperature of the room, which is a strong indication that there was substantially less heat escaping from the room through the windows because of the INOVUES retrofit.
A survey conducted by Saint-Gobain of the people who used the rooms before and after the retrofit revealed that occupants have reported that the retrofitted rooms were: More comfortable, had a more consistent room temperature, and felt less drafty. Additionally, Saint-Gobain’s facilities personnel confirmed that there were no signs of water leakage, moisture, or condensation whatsoever over the past three months. This confirms the results of the performance and accelerated weathering tests that were previously performed per ASTM and AAMA industry standards at Intertek, a leading independent testing facility.
In terms of visual impact, INOVUES Glazing Shields have a very slim/compact profile and a frameless look with edge-to-edge glass. Thus, their appearance is determined primarily by the characteristics of the newly added glass, which can be offered in many options that can preserve or enhance the appearance of the building, as desired, without altering its architectural identity. For this project, the intent was to maintain the look of the windows and overall appearance of the building, so a glass with a high visible light transmittance (VLT) and similar reflectance was selected.
Video showing several retrofitted windows.
This project demonstrates the feasibility of INOVUES Glazing Shields as a cost-effective energy efficiency retrofit solution for building facades and windows. In the United States, over 50% of the existing building stock is estimated to have thermally inefficient windows responsible for 20-40% of the total energy loss in buildings, which in turn, account for about 40% of all energy consumption and carbon emissions in the U.S. according to the Department of Energy. However, replacing the windows is often not a feasible option due to the associated high costs, building disruption, and long payback. INOVUES Glazing Shields can increase window insulation by up to 10 times and reduce energy consumption by up to 40% at a fraction of the cost of window replacement and with no downtime or disruption to the building or occupants, providing up to 10 times faster payback and up to 400% return on investment. This can help increase and accelerate the rate of window upgrades significantly, which would help many cities achieve their energy-efficiency and emissions-reduction targets faster. INOVUES is currently working on similar retrofit projects in Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, and Montreal.
About INOVUES
INOVUES is an award-winning window technology company that is focused on building upgrades and energy efficiency retrofits. We have developed a non-intrusive glazing retrofit system, Glazing Shield™, that enables the windows and curtain walls of existing buildings to be retrofitted with new high-tech glass without removing, replacing, drilling, or altering any existing components. INOVUES’ patented technology offers building owners a cost-effective and non-disruptive solution to upgrade the facades and windows—whether to bring them up to energy code levels and comply with building efficiency laws or to incorporate the latest window glass technologies and benefit from advanced features like vacuum insulation, energy harvesting, and dynamic tinting/heat-gain control.