When you add skylights to your home, you can instantly feel the benefits of natural light. Skylights help to illuminate those darker corners while bringing warmth to cold spaces. But in the summer, this benefit can become a bit of burden if you find that your rooms are getting too hot, too quickly. This is where solar glass also called solar control glass can help. In this article, we’ll explain how the glass works and some of the benefits of using it instead of traditional glass.
What is solar control glass?
In short, solar control glass helps to reflect the sun’s rays, letting in a smaller amount of heat. This helps to keep rooms cooler, without stopping light getting into your spaces altogether. Adding solar control glass to your home gives you:
cooler interiors
maximum light
glare filter
energy-efficiency
UV protection
durability
flexibility of design
lower energy consumption
We combine our solar control glass solution with an argon gas-filled cavity, which controls the amount of visible light, the UV rays and the heat that passes through the glass.
How it works?
There are different types of solar control glass available but the most common examples use tints, coating and a combination of the two. Tints use colouring to absorb the heat while coatings reflect the heat back outside. A combination absorbs and reflects heat.
Our solar control glass reflects approximately 60% of the sun’s heat and is available in blue or neutral colourings – the neutral version has a slightly grey tint. To give you an idea of how solar control glass compares, here’s how the neutral colouring measures up against our clear glass:
Light transmittance – 41% (neutral) vs 74% (clear)
UV transmittance – 15% (neutral) vs 32% (clear)
Heat from sun (energy) transmittance – 31% (neutral) vs 52% (clear)
Key benefits to solar control glass
For south-facing rooms, solar control glass can be crucial to making spaces more comfortable during the summer months when UV rays are at their strongest.
It obviously works to help keep rooms cool, but adding them to your skylight instead of normal glass also helps to improve your home’s thermal efficiency. By keeping your spaces cool, it reduces the need for you to use air conditioning or fans, helping you to save on electricity. Your furnishings will experience the benefits of solar control glass too. Prolonged exposure to UV rays fades fabric colours, leaving permanent damage to the material. As the glass stops this, it will help to keep your possessions looking like new. And as an added benefit, our solar control glass is self-cleaning. Using a chemical formula that coats the outer layer of the glass, the glass reacts with rain water that makes it viscous. Any dirt is then carried away when it rains.
Find out more
Finding the right skylight solution can feel overwhelming. Our friendly team has over 15 years of experience in ordering and installing the highest quality glass and frames. Whether this is a new venture or you’ve already added a skylight to your home, we’re on hand to answer any questions you may have.
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