The new Origin Twin Flush window is available with advanced polyamide thermal breaks giving it excellent U Values and Window Energy Ratings. Now, as an optional extra customers can specify the new Aerogel enhancement to the thermal break.
Why windows need products like Aerogel?
Systems companies in both PVCu and aluminium are coming under increasing pressure to future proof their windows. Performance standards on windows and in Building Regulations generally are increasing.
Rather than constantly adapt windows to meet future changes in Building Regulations, it makes more sense to future proof these and ensure windows meet current and future requirements.
If you examine any aluminium window such as the new Warmcore door from Synseal, you will notice how little aluminium there is compared to insulation. The polyamide thermal break used in aluminium windows is getting larger and deeper to provide a bigger thermal break and reduce window U Values, with the aluminium element getting smaller.
Senior Architectural also recently introduced their PURe window system that also uses a different material to enhance their window’s performance. This is in the form of an expanded polyurethane material.
So as you can see there are now new ways of going beyond the standard polyamide thermal break used in aluminium windows.
It is also important to consider that on powder coated aluminium windows there are different colours inside and out, these thermal breaks are what makes dual colour window possible.
In this process the aluminium is powder coated the one colour for the inside, the other colour for the outside and only then is it rolled onto the thermal break to create the finished dual colour window profile.
What is Aerogel used in the Origin Twin Flush Window?
Aerogel is a synthetic material that has had the liquid element of the gel removed. The result is a material that will not shrink and that is solid yet rigid. Aerogels are excellent thermal insulators. By nature of their composition they virtually eliminate the factors that cause cold bridging in windows or the transfer of heat and cold.
These physical properties enable Aerogel to be used as an insulation material. NASA has been doing so for a while giving the Mars Rover and space suits thermal insulation.
In America, Aerogel was used to pride insulation to a semi transparent roof of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s 2007 Solar Decathlon House project – an international competition to design the most energy efficient solar power house.
Using Aerogel in the Origin Twin Flush Window.
By offering Aerogel to enhance the thermal breaks of the new Origin Twin Flush windows, even greater thermal performance is achieved. A Window Energy Rating (WER) or A+21 is achieved or a certified U Value of 1.0Wm2K.
Origin are the first systems company ever to use this advanced space age material in a domestic window and will remain the only ones able to do so in the future as they have achieved exclusivity for this in the fenestration sector.
For those architects, specifiers, planners and homeowners wishing to achieve the best thermal performance from their aluminium windows, the Aerogel used in the Origin aluminium windows helps make this achievable.
