New transparent Thin Films for Thermal Insulation

The influence of the 45.6% infrared portion of solar radiation goes counter to a reduction of the energy consumed by air conditioning. This paper suggests a solution to reduce the solar heat gain through glass windows in buildings by mounting a heat insulation film on the glass which has the ability to absorb or reflect some part of the infrared spectrum by means of nano- ceramic particles embedded in a thin PET layer. This study deals with a comparison of both the numerical and experimental results obtained using three new thin film samples of different materials to determine their thermal insulation effects. The experimental results showed an average temperature reduction of about 20℃ on a black collector at steady state when using the best thin film compared with the use of regular glass. This revealed that the thin films used effectively reduced indoor temperature by reflection/ absorption of a selected band in the infrared spectrum and this made them well suited for the control of solar heat gain through windows.