The building owner, Kaiserman Co. Inc., Philadelphia, considered several options, including window film and traditional window replacement. The owner discovered, however, window film had deteriorated in the past and window replacement would be costly in terms of price and tenant disruption. “Money is always one of the top considerations in any project,” says Carolyn Pfeiffer, commercial property manager for Kaiserman Co. “For this project, we were looking at updating 651 windows with 19,000 square feet of glass surface area. The cost of doing a full window replacement was cost-prohibitive.”
Instead, Kaiserman representatives opted to use a window retrofit solution it had implemented one-year prior on another building. The system adds two lites of high-performance low-E glass to the existing interior window surface to create a permanently sealed, no-maintenance, triple-glazed unit that offers a solar heat gain coefficient as low as 0.27, a winter U-value of 0.15 and an R-value of 6.67. The system also rates 37 on the Sound Transmission Class scale; the retrofit solution minimizes noise from the nearby highway.
This building is one of three projects the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficient Buildings Hub is monitoring. The EEB Hub was established to accelerate the adoption of advanced energy retrofits for commercial buildings by making use of new but proven technologies, systems and processes. The hub aims to develop the means and methods to help building owners reduce energy use in commercial buildings by 20 percent by the end of this decade. (Learn more about the EEB Hub and retrofit’s video partnership with the organization in “Point of View”.)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, estimates inefficient windows account for as much as 25 percent of a typical building’s heating load in cold climates and 50 percent of the cooling load in warm climates. These four buildings serve as prime examples of how a window retrofit or replacement project can heighten the aesthetic appeal of a building while increasing its energy efficiency.
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Home Innovation Research Labs Inc., Upper Marlboro, Md., conducted a U.S. Department of Energy-funded study about the Pennsauken, N.J.-based Kevon Office Center’s retrofit windows. Read the results.
Hillshire Brands
Owner/developer: Sterling Bay Cos., Chicago
Architect: Proteus Group, Chicago
General contractor: Leopardo Cos. Inc., Chicago
Glass manufacturer: Guardian Industries
Fabricators: Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope and Dlubak Corp.
Glass installation: Glass Solutions Inc., Chicago
Pearl Harbor Hangar
Window manufacturer: Hope’s, Jamestown, N.Y.
The ONE55 Series Steel Windows were custom-made for this historic project but today are available as a line from the manufacturer. They are designed for projects requiring replication of historic steel windows with arrow profiles.
Robert E. Lee High School
General contractor: Ajax Building Corp., Jacksonville, Fla.
Architect: Rolland, DelValle, & Bradley Architecture and Interior Designs, Jacksonville
Curtainwall and window manufacturer: YKK AP America, Dublin, Ga.
The primary window was YKK AP single hung, YVS 410 TU, H – AW 65, with applied grid and muntins in the glass. Laminated glass was used on the first-floor windows for security. Laminated glass is commonly used in storefronts because only the outside lite will break while the interior laminate layer remains intact and protects against intruders.
Kevon Office Center
Owner: Kaiserman Co. Inc., Philadelphia
Window system manufacturer: Renovate by Berkowitz, Pedricktown, N.J.
The RbB Platinum Plus II system was used on windows on the east-, west- and north-facing sides of the building. The Platinum Plus II XL system was used for the south elevations, which are exposed to more solar-heat gain throughout the day. The window retrofitting system features two Cradle to Cradle-certified lites of low-E Solarban and Sungate glasses by Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries, separated by an argon gas-filled cavity. A specially developed spacer system hermetically seals the IGU to the interior surface of the existing glass to create a permanent attachment. After installation, the triple-pane IGUs offer R-values in the winter up to six times greater than the original windows and U-values that reduce solar-heat-gain coefficients by up to 65 percent.