Saint-Gobain's Habitat Lab in Corsico (Milan province), Italy, was constructed using a combination of the most advanced building materials and practices, including SageGlass in this conference room. It also serves as a "building workshop" that monitors energy performance and the effects of its "quality of life" benefits on the building occupants. SageGlass helps enable the facility to save energy, reduce emissions, and improve the comfort of the people inside. Photo by Kevin G. Reeves; Courtesy of Westlake Reed Leskosky
General Information
Manufacturer/Developer
SAGE Electrochromics
1 Sage Way
Faribault, Minnesota
United States
507-331-4848
www.sageglass.com
Primary Contact
Brenna Woodman
Brodeur Partners
One Harbour Place
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
United States
603-559-5801
bwoodman@brodeur.com
Description
Product Type: Used in the construction or deconstruction of a building.
Launch Date: Has been in production for 10 years; updated 2013.
Development
How the product came into existence, and how the product meets some marketable demand.
In 1989, John Van Dine, founder of SAGE Electrochromics, left the thin-film solar cell industry to focus on electrochromic glass technology. Van Dine has since devoted the past 26 years to developing thin-film processing technologies and commercializing electrochromic glass. He founded SAGE in a small laboratory in Valley Cottage, N.Y., and the company quickly grew. With this new growth Van Dine made the decision to move SAGE west to Minnesota—"the Silicon Valley of the window industry"—where today it is the world's leading manufacturer of electrochromic, or electronically tintable, dynamic glass. Based in Faribault, MN, SAGE has more than 250 patents and its portfolio of customer success stories is growing. A 2012 acquisition by Saint-Gobain, the world's largest supplier of building materials, has opened global markets for their SageGlass and to keep up with the volume of orders they have built a brand new high volume manufacturing facility. These recent accomplishments by SAGE are helping to usher in a new era of high-performance glazing that is both eco-friendly and economically appealing.
SageGlass is designed for architects, building owners, glazing contractors, and homeowners who want an energy-efficient glazing solution that controls the sun without blocking the view to the outdoors. SageGlass appeals to building owners because it is an eco-friendly alternative to conventional skylights and solar controls such as shades and blinds, allowing natural light and creating a more energy efficient building, and a happier, more productive workplace. For architects, SageGlass costs the same or less than conventional systems when considering the total solution cost. Traditional methods of controlling sunlight quickly add up. With traditional sun controls, architects need to budget for shades/blinds (plus installation and maintenance), exterior sunshades (plus transport and installation), larger HVAC systems, increased energy usage, lighting and peak demand electricity charges. SageGlass eliminates these needs while preserving an aesthetically pleasing design. Unlike traditional glass, SageGlass is a strategic design element that elevates the brand and profitability of glazing contractors. More project budget goes to glazing, rather than other attempts to control sunlight and heat such as shades and blinds.
SageGlass is easy to install and works seamlessly with building automation systems, one of the fastest-growing trends in construction today. SAGE has initiated an alliance with a leading lighting controls manufacturer, Lutron, to market "integrated facades" that bundle dynamic glazing with daylighting control systems to optimize energy performance. It has also recently announced a relationship with Schneider Electric to become a technology partner to collaborate on systems integration and interoperability between Schneider's HVAC and BMS control products and SAGE's dynamic glazing. Additionally, SageGlass allows homeowners to maintain a view and connection to the outdoor world without having to endure glare and heat gain. Homeowners can save on energy bills and minimize their impact on the planet. By optimizing daylight, people can be comfortable all day long, even when the sun shines brightest and hottest. Workers have fewer health complaints, are more resistant to fatigue and stress, and are more satisfied with their jobs than windowless workers. Daylighted buildings improve morale, volunteerism, and competition for jobs while reducing absenteeism. Buildings account for 40% of global energy consumption and 21% of greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, widespread use of smart window technologies like SageGlass "could save about one-eighth of all the energy used by buildings in the U.S. every year". To meet this high demand, SAGE's new 324,000-square-foot high volume manufacturing facility is capable of producing about four million square feet of dynamic glass annually, the largest electrochromic glazing plant in the world, allowing production of SageGlass in high volumes and in large commercial architectural sizes at an affordable cost. The HVM facility is a model of green manufacturing. The building was designed to meet LEED Silver certification and features many innovations to improve energy efficiency as well as the health, comfort, and happiness of employees.
The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia is a city-block-wide collection of performance halls and open spaces enclosed inside a soaring, 150-foot-high barrel-vaulted glass roof. At the Center's highest elevation sits the Dorrance H. Hamilton Garden Terrace, which offers stunning views of the city and overlooks the entire Kimmel Center complex.The vaulted glass roof created a monumental solar control problem (indoor temperatures soaring to 100 degrees or more) that SageGlass solved, because architects didn't want to obstruct the views with shading systems. BLT Architects designed a roof made of SageGlass for the Terrace, which helps maintain a comfortable temperature and blocks glare for occupants without impeding the breathtaking views.
Competing products and why this one is superior to others.
SAGE's top competing products include View Inc's ViewGlass, Pleotint's Suntuitive, and Research Frontiers' SPD SmartGlass. Similar to SageGlass, each product is designed to automatically adapt to changing sunlight and be controlled by a user to meet specific needs. Unlike its competitors, SAGE's experience in shipping electrochromic glass for over ten years has helped advanced the manufacturing process of SageGlass to incorporate state-of-the-art laminated construction and coatings, providing unmatched strength, safety quality, consistency, durability and improved exterior aesthetics regardless of viewing angle and level of tint. SageGlass is also available in a variety of tints, colors and shapes: rectangles, squares, parallelograms, trapezoids and triangles. Further, SageGlass' exclusive zoned control of tinting levels within the same pane of glass allows for the most precise management of daylight and glare for maximum optimization of natural light. Similar to competing products, you can use a simple wall switch or remote control to change the tint of the glass; but SageGlass can also be integrated into building automation systems such as lighting, energy management, audio/visual, and security systems. It is also the industry's first electrochromic glass that is completely self-powered, self-contained, and wirelessly controllable with an iPad.
Positive and negative aspects of the product.
In addition to being offered in various colors, shapes and sizes, SAGE has also introduced a dynamic glass window system that enables variable tint zones within a single pane of electrochromic glass. Variable tint SageGlass allows architects to create designs that precisely adjust to constantly changing environmental conditions, and building owners can experience windows with the highest level of energy efficiency and solar control possible. The new SageGlass Control System allows building occupants to change the tint in three different sections in a single pane of SageGlass, and each section can be set to any available tint level. This variability provides much greater flexibility for managing solar heat gain and glare. With multiple zones in a single window, factors such as the changing angles of the sun throughout the day and seasons can be better managed to optimize daylight and preserve the outdoor view.
The Control System supports a variety of popular building automation network standards and protocols, such as BACnet and LonTalk, enabling it to be integrated easily into most commercial building control systems. The SageGlass Control System can also be programmed to work automatically with external light sensors, or manually using push-button controls. And the new variable zone capability doesn't add installation complexity—a multi-zone SageGlass unit has just four wires for simple and low-cost installation. Although advances in its manufacturing technology have increased the range of projects to which SageGlass can be applied, it is currently available on in sizes up to five feet by ten feet.
The all-glass cube expansion to the Morgan Library at Colorado State University presented a challenge for the school, which intended the space as a study center for students, and which was also seeking LEED® Silver or above. SageGlass in the western facade contributed to the success of both objectives.
Criteria Objectives
Whole Building Design Objectives. The high-performance attributes the product addresses. Benefits. The benefits to the owner/client. How does the product advance safety, improve comfort or decrease operational costs? Describe the uniqueness of the solution and how this product differs from currently available products.
SageGlass is designed for architects, building owners, glazing contractors, and homeowners who want an energy-efficient glazing solution that controls the sun without blocking the view to the outdoors. SageGlass appeals to building owners because it is an eco-friendly alternative to conventional skylights and solar controls such as shades and blinds, allowing natural light and creating a more energy efficient building, and a happier, more productive workplace. For architects, SageGlass costs the same or less than conventional systems when considering the total solution cost. Traditional methods of controlling sunlight quickly add up. With traditional sun controls, architects need to budget for shades/blinds (plus installation and maintenance), exterior sunshades (plus transport and installation), larger HVAC systems, increased energy usage, lighting, and peak demand electricity charges. SageGlass eliminates these needs while preserving an aesthetically pleasing design. Unlike traditional glass, SageGlass is a strategic design element that elevates the brand and profitability of glazing contractors. More project budget goes to glazing, rather than other attempts to control sunlight and heat such as shades and blinds.
SageGlass is easy to install and works seamlessly with building automation systems, one of the fastest-growing trends in construction today. SAGE has initiated an alliance with a leading lighting controls manufacturer, Lutron, to market "integrated facades" that bundle dynamic glazing with daylighting control systems to optimize energy performance. It has also recently announced a relationship with Schneider Electric to become a technology partner to collaborate on systems integration and interoperability between Schneider's HVAC and BMS control products and SAGE's dynamic glazing. Additionally, SageGlass allows homeowners to maintain a view and connection to the outdoor world without having to endure glare and heat gain. Homeowners can save on energy bills and minimize their impact on the planet.
Synergies
By offering SageGlass in various colors and shapes, architects and building owners have much greater design freedom for optimizing daylight and reducing energy consumption in buildings by allowing them to incorporate dynamic glass into just about any challenging window, skylight, or curtain wall scenario. These options, in addition to the elimination of maintenance and installation of traditional sun controls, helps reduce the tradeoffs that architects must sometimes make when choosing energy-efficient glazing over aesthetic design. Solar-powered wireless SageGlass is a flexible alternative for projects in which access to a building's electrical wiring is impractical, such as hard-to-reach skylights or clerestory windows. It's also a great solution for retrofit projects as well as smaller "one-off" installations for homes or offices where just one or two dynamic glass windows are needed to solve a sun control problem. These design solutions are a major reason for SAGE's large customer base and why it is the best option for many varied projects—whether it is a hospital, classroom, library, museum, government building, home, and more. For examples of different SAGE projects, visit sageglass.com/portfolio.
SageGlass was selected for a recent renovation at the U.S. General Services Administration headquarters in Washington, DC: the 7-story atrium was built atop a formerly open-air courtyard. The glass provides comfort for building occupants and helps reduce the amount of energy used for cooling and heating. But, as importantly, the glass also serves as a demonstrable example to the public of the green technologies the GSA is increasingly incorporating into its new and renovated buildings.
References
Awards
- Also refer to: sageglass.com/about-sage/awards
- Honor Award: Sustainable Buildings Industry Council Beyond Green Awards, Category: High Performance Product, 2013
- Green Thinker Network Sustainability 2013 Award
- Solar Foundation Technology Innovation Award, 2013
- The SNAPPYS—SNAP Magazine's Product Awards, 2013
- 2013 NACDB Merit Award—Industry Award for Innovation
- Minnesota Business Magazine Manufacturing Awards: Sustainability
- Helen Sanders named one of US Glass magazine's Top 100 Influencers, 2012
- Green Thinker Network Sustainability Award, 2012
- BATIMAT 2011 International Innovation Award
- Architectural Products magazine's Product Innovation Award, 2011
- Sustainable Industries' Top 10 Green Products Award, 2011
- Bloomberg New Energy Finance—New Energy Pioneer Award, 2011
- Small Business Success Stories John Van Dine as Top 200 Minnesotans You Should Know, 2011 by Twin Cities Business
- This Old House, Best New Home Products Award, 2010
- Building Operating Management's 2010 Top Products Award
- Buildings Magazine's 2007 Editor's Choice Top 100 Products Award
- INC. Magazine's Most Likely To Succeed Award, 2006
- R&D 100 Awards for Energy, 2004
- BuildingGreen Top-10 Green Building Products Award, 2006
- HOME's 2005 American Building Product Award
- Innovative Housing 2006 Technology Award
- Window Door Crystal Achievement Award, 2005
- Wall Street Journal's Technology Innovation Award, 2004
Publications
- Recent coverage is listed here: sageglass.com/about-sage/media
