Window films for improving eco-friendly housing design

As sustainable initiatives become the standard across construction industries, taking a sustainable approach to construction projects is the way forward. Sustainable building practices offer a variety of benefits, including lower cooling and heating costs, and other reduced general expenses.

Retrofitting non-green buildings with up-to-date, eco-friendly technology is a relatively affordable practice that increases the sustainability of a building and reduces its carbon footprint. One such cost-effective, efficient option is the professional application of specialized window films.

Window films fill a variety of roles, including solar control, insulation, UV blocking, safety and security, glare control, privacy, and even decoration.

There is a large number of reasons to invest in specialized window films:

• Window films can reduce cooling costs by up to 30 percent. Solar-control films can block as much as 80 percent of solar heat entering a building through glass.
• Standard, untreated windows only block 25 to 50 percent of ultraviolet rays that pass through it, whereas window films have been known to block up to 99 per cent. UV rays are damaging to a person’s health and may lead to premature ageing, skin damage and even skin cancer.
• Instead of investing energy and materials into making, delivering, and installing a new window, using window films can bring existing windows to contemporary standards. With all aspects considered, they can create up to seven times the energy saving benefits over outright replacing the same windows.
• Window films are also a safety precaution: The film reinforces the window, and in case of breaking, the glass fragments remain together, instead of shattering. These added benefits reduce the potential damage an event like an earthquake or chemical explosion may cause.
• From aesthetic and privacy perspective, decorative films can be used to make clear glass look frosted, patterned, or otherwise customised and aesthetically pleasing.

With the ever-increasing need to improve the efficiency and appeal of buildings and homes, window films are a great long-term, cost-effective, and easily implemented solution.