Climate Control Middle East caught up with Samih Nabih Yehia, Area Sales Manager for Abu Dhabi, Emirates Glass, who spoke about the salient features of the glass panels his company had installed in a model of an Estidama-compliant home on display during the event.

Samih Nabih Yehia explained that the glass panels used in the model featured two major Estidama requirements – solar heat gain coefficient and U value. He highlighted that while Estidama standards asked for a solar heat gain coefficient of 0.4, his company’s panels were providing 0.19 to 0.21, which, he said, was almost 100% above the Estidama requirement. In terms of the U value, their glass panels matched the requirements, he said.

Yehia pointed out that the panels installed in the model home were double-glazed glass, which was achieved by sputtering types of metals on the glass. The process involved nuclear technology, he revealed.

As for the transmission of visible light, Yehia said that Emirates Glass was providing glass panels with a range from four per cent to 70%. He emphasised that in the UAE, people preferred using glass panels with 20% to 25% light transmission, which would provide a comfortably lit environment to the occupants.

From a cooling perspective, Yehia said that the regular clear glass would give its users around 400 watts of relative heat gain per square metre, while the glass panels from Emirates Glass was giving 110 to 150 watts of relative heat gain per square metre, so the users could save around 250 watts per square metre.

He summed up by saying that allowing a comfortable amount of light to come in resulted in the decreased need for indoor lighting. “The problem with panels with high light transmission was that they allowed too much light, because of which people would choose to draw the curtains and switch on the lights. We are giving a comfortable light transmission, where people can live with some privacy, so we don’t use lighting for daytime,” he said.