Ecological building
Hot summers – windows filled with water are said to replace air conditioning
The experimental house of Dr. Matyas Gutai.
©PR
Conventional insulating windows keep the heat in the apartment. But in times of climate change, it becomes more important to keep the heat out. Windows with water inserts should cool the apartment without consuming energy.
In the future, it should be easy to cool your home and produce hot water at the same time. A British scientist has found a solution, he wants to fill window panes with water. Today, insulating glass consists of several layers of glass, but the space in between is filled with gas – mostly argon.
dr Matyas Gutai, Lecturer in Architecture at Loughborough University, says his “water-filled glass” (WFG) windows are far better. He wants to fill the space between the panes with water, so incident light will first heat up the water and not heat up the space behind it. However, the amount of water is relatively small, the warm water is pumped out from a certain temperature and replaced by cool water. The warm water can be used in different ways depending on your needs. In areas with strong temperature fluctuations between day and night, it can heat up the house at night. But it can also be used simply as domestic hot water in the kitchen and bathroom.
This story is part of a Theme week of the Bertelsmann Content Alliance. Under the motto “Let’s do it – so that it will still work tomorrow!” RTL Germany, UFA, RTL Radio Germany, the Penguin Random House publishing group and the publishing house Gruner + Jahr, in which the star will be published from October 4th to 10th on the subject of water. The aim of this theme week is to the awareness of the value of and the threat to our resource water to increase.
Significant energy savings
The energy consumption for the pumps is relatively low, says Gutai. His facility would therefore use significantly less energy than the heating systems and air conditioning required to maintain similar room temperatures. That’s not surprising, because the heating water is also moved by pumps these days. Based on computer simulations, he estimates that a house with its panes and another heat pump would use up to 72 percent less energy than the same building with double-glazed windows and traditional systems.
In winter, the water is to be kept from freezing by a layer in the window with argon gas. In extreme temperatures, the emergency measure could be to completely drain the water from the windows. But this is probably more of a hypothetical assumption, the main advantage of the water windows is cooling in the heat. Warm southerners are likely to have the greatest interest in the technology. In fact, the combination of global warming and better incomes mean that more and more air conditioning systems are currently being installed worldwide, which is driving up energy consumption.
Compared to classic methods such as shutters and blinds, the water window leaves the view unobstructed and does not lead to darkening of the rooms. In addition, the sound insulation should be very good.
Mobile air conditioner test: Click here for a comparison of mobile air conditioners.
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