What if the windows in your living room meant that you no longer needed a radiator? — AFP Relaxnews
What if you no longer needed to turn on your radiator or air conditioning unit thanks to the windows in your living room? That’s the idea of a British startup that has designed water-filled windows that can capture sunlight to heat and cool buildings.
Since the onset of the energy crisis, solutions to save money on household gas and/or electricity bills seem to be multiplying, whether through sharing tips and tricks, making more radical lifestyle choices or technological innovations. One of the latest potential solutions comes in the form of “Water-Filled Glass”, essentially windows filled with water designed by the British startup of the same name.
The concept is simple: the water in the window panes absorbs the sun's rays and limits the heat in the rooms of a house, keeping them cool. And in winter, the process is reversed: the windows are bathed in sunlight and the water heats up, before being conveyed through the walls of the building via an internal piping system.
This technology could allow for significant energy savings. The heat captured “can be used elsewhere in the house (eg, for heating or hot water), which saves energy for the home even if the room itself is not used”, explain the creators of “Water-Filled Glass” on their website.
Still in the process of being installed, these windows should soon be deployed on two buildings: one in Hungary, the other in the United States. Two prototypes were also recently completed in Hungary and at Feng Chia University in Taiwan.
This kind of initiative is reminiscent of a project that should soon be launched in France in the Confluence district of the southeastern city of Lyon. Called “L’Essentiel”, this low-carbon building, which has no air-conditioning or heating system, will maintain an ambient temperature of between 22 and 26 degrees Celsius at all times. This construction project, led by the company Nexity, is directly inspired by a method invented by the Austrian architect Dietmar Eberle in 2013 with the “2226” project. – AFP Relaxnews
