Windows
Windows contribute about 30% to building heating and cooling electrical loads nationwide. Thus, potential energy savings from the wide-scale use of advanced windows is nearly 6% of the national energy consumption. NREL researchers perform research on advanced window concepts, particularly those combining very high thermal efficiency and dynamic transmittance of light. A key area of research activity is in electrochromic windows, which can control the amount of sunlight passing through windows by the application of low voltage power to photovoltaic "thin films" deposited upon the outside pane of glass.
Our research supports DOE's goal to deploy energy neutral windows by 2015 (residential) and 2020 (commercial). Beyond that, it may be feasible to develop windows that are energy appliances, delivering overall more energy than they consume. NREL also performs materials research and support functions such as durability testing and the development of test standards and ratings to provide the information required by manufacturers to deploy commercial dynamic window products.
