Rethinking IGU failure at GPD
By Richard Sellman BFRC managing director.
I recently attended Glass Performance Days (GPD) in Finland and found it incredibly insightful. I was unsure of what to expect, but I have to say, it was extremely well put together and provided a real insight into the latest industry developments.
Having been in the fenestration industry for many years and being an active contributor on working groups for most of that time, I fully appreciate how the sharing of ideas and collaboration are what makes this industry great. Driving standards to improve are the backbone of every concept, but it’s important to ensure we have the right knowledge to back it up, which is why sharing that knowledge becomes so powerful.
The view of what constitutes a failed unit is changing. Historically, a failed unit would be one you couldn’t see through due to internal condensation, but this is now changing so that the degradation of thermal performance over time is a primary consideration – the things we can’t see happening are just as (if not more so) important as the things we can.
We were able to contribute to a paper presented at GPD utilising data we’ve been gathering from measurements taken both onsite and in the laboratory. We continue to develop this data in order to support our understanding of the changes in thermal performance during service and hope to present a paper on this subject later in the year.
We’re seeing a growing number of clients who want to understand the thermal efficiency of the units they have in situ, in order to manage the long-term thermal performance of the building envelope. Through this work, we aim to model the long-term thermal contribution of the glazing system in the overall energy efficiency of the building.
GPD was a great reminder of the continued development and innovation across our industry – a great couple of days of knowledge sharing, networking and collaboration, which is what we need to focus on to drive product performance forward.