by Rebecca Walker — March 12, 2010—Green building materials manufacturer Serious Materials has devised a way to super-insulate the 6,514 double-hung windows in the Empire State Building. The insulation is expected to boost thermal performance as much as 400 percent and reduce energy costs by more than $400,000 a year.
The windows project is one of eight major components in a retrofit that is expected to reduce energy use at the Empire State Building by 38 percent, save $4.4 million annually and avoid 105,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the next 15 years.
Serious Materials’ SeriousWindows and SeriousGlass are designed to deliver high-performance insulation and make the structures that use them more energy efficient. Applying technology used in making SeriousGlass, the company intends to convert the existing glass in the Empire State Building’s windows into “super-insulating glass units” (a basic insulated glass unit, or IGU as its known in industry shorthand, is the glass sandwich that comprises a multiple glass pane).
Serious Materials’ units for the Empire State Building will be made by removing the glass from window frames, separating and cleaning it, then installing new spacers between the panes along with a suspended coated film and a special gas fill. Then the units will be reinstalled in the existing window frames. When complete, the thermal resistance or R-value of the windows is expected to increase from R-2 to a range of R-5 to R-8.
