Open The Windows

Open the windows. Glasgow School of Art experts issue health warning over airtight new homes.

Glasgow School of Art experts issue health warning over airtight new homes: Poor ventilation in new homes could lead to health problems for occupants, architecture experts have warned. A lack of air vents or open windows leads to a build-up of pollutants and chemicals from furniture, flooring and plastics that is hard to detect, Glasgow School of Art's Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU) said.

The unit claims most modern homes are being built to be airtight, which can cause problems for people with asthma and respiratory issues if they are not ventilated properly. A public awareness film has been made by MEARU urging people to make sure they ventilate their homes. Recommendations include keeping vents or windows open when cooking, showering and cleaning; drying laundry near an open window; and opening windows at night.

Professor Tim Sharpe, head of MEARU, said: "Poor indoor air quality, particularly in bedrooms, is hard for people to detect. "There are clear links between poor ventilation and ill-health so people need to be aware of the build-up of CO2 and other pollutants in their homes and their potential impact on health. "Modern homes are increasingly airtight and can also contain a great number of pollutants and chemicals, many of which can have serious health effects.

"It is clear from this research that buildings are simply not well ventilated and this could seriously impact on occupants' health, especially vulnerable people such as those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma."

MEARU - which works between architectural design and scientific research - carried out a study of 200 modern homes and found "widespread evidence of poor ventilation, with bedrooms being a particular problem". Prof Sharpe added: "In the past, some houses had plaques telling people to open their windows and public information films would offer similar advice.

"We hope that this film will help people to understand more about the need to ventilate and how best to ensure that they get the best possible indoor air quality so as to avoid problems of ill-health and the associated cost to our health system."

The Glasgow School of Art body worked with Hanover Housing Association during the study. Development officer Kenneth Shepherd said: "It has been fascinating working with Professor Sharpe and the team at MEARU and receiving their conclusions has been very helpful. "Going forward all our new residents will be provided with information on the best way of ensuring that they ventilate their homes properly."

UK Window Cleaners Statistically A Hit With Under 35's

The research found that one in four households have a window cleaner and nearly a fifth – 17per cent - employ gardeners.

Return of the cleaner: One if three families now pays for domestic help: A third of households hire domestic help and the trend is driven by under-35s. An influx of migrants from other EU states has created a pool of cheap workers. Twice as many people under 35 have a cleaner compared to older people.

As a result, it is not just the well-heeled who can pay others to do the hoovering and ironing or tidy the garden, according to the study by insurers esure. A spokesman said: ‘The idea of having regular help coming to your home is something that is traditionally associated with the well-to-do but it is becoming more mainstream. ‘In fact one in four of those on modest household incomes – earning up to £20,000 per year – now hire regular help.’ 

Researchers found that twice as many people under the age of 35 have a cleaner compared to older people – 16 per cent versus 9 per cent. While this may appear to be laziness, it could simply be that young adults and parents are working long hours to fund life’s essentials. Across the nation, working long hours and a busy social life are given as the main motivation for hiring a cleaner. While one in three simply say it is just easier to use a professional to do chores properly.

A quarter of young adults said they would rather do other things with their free time than dust and vacuum, and a further one in four find the work too boring to do themselves. The research found that one in four households have a window cleaner and nearly a fifth – 17 per cent - employ gardeners. One in 20 households hire handymen for simple jobs. Interestingly, a higher proportion of men rather than women brought in an expert - 6 per cent versus 4 per cent.

Other studies suggest today’s young men have never learned basic DIY skills and simply would not know where to start on changing a tap washer or putting up a shelf. Generation Y are forking out the most for their hired help with the under 35s spending an average of £204 last month compared to the average of £127. Despite the significant sums of money being handed over, the majority of people – 87per cent – do it on a ‘cash in hand’ basis.

Esure said people bringing in strangers to work around their home are not being as careful as they should. Fewer than one in four check references and four in five do not have a formal written contract. The study suggests the total sum paid for help around the home adds up to £26billion a year. 

Windows Soon To Become TV's

Lead investigator Kenneth Chau develops new glass technology by coating small pieces of glass with extremely thin layers of metal. 

Researchers discover new glass technology: Imagine if the picture window in your living room could double as a giant thermostat or big screen TV. A discovery by researchers at the University of British Columbia has brought us one step closer to this becoming a reality.

Researchers at UBC's Okanagan campus in Kelowna found that coating small pieces of glass with extremely thin layers of metal like silver makes it possible to enhance the amount of light coming through the glass. This, coupled with the fact that metals naturally conduct electricity, may make it possible to add advanced technologies to windowpanes and other glass objects.

"Engineers are constantly trying to expand the scope of materials that they can use for display technologies, and having thin, inexpensive, see-through components that conduct electricity will be huge," said UBC Associate Professor and lead investigator Kenneth Chau. "I think one of the most important implications of this research is the potential to integrate electronic capabilities into windows and make them smart."

The next phase of this research, added Chau, will be to incorporate their invention onto windows with an aim to selectively filter light and heat waves depending on the season or time of day.

Kenneth Chau (left) and and Loïc Markley (right) coated small pieces of glass with extremely thin layers of metal. 

The theory underlying the research was developed by Chau and collaborator Loïc Markley, an assistant professor of engineering at UBC. Chau and Markley questioned what would happen if they reversed the practice of applying glass over metal—a typical method used in the creation of energy efficient window coatings.

"It's been known for quite a while that you could put glass on metal to make metal more transparent, but people have never put metal on top of glass to make glass more transparent," said Markley. "It's counter-intuitive to think that metal could be used to enhance light transmission, but we saw that this was actually possible, and our experiments are the first to prove it."

New Feel Good Glass

Fraunhofer researchers have developed a window coating (not pictured) that lets in more light in the wavelengths that have a beneficial effect on our sense of well-being.

Window coating improves mood by letting more light in: With many of us spending more and more time indoors, it can be a struggle to get the amount of sunlight our bodies crave. Modern heat-insulating, sun-protection glazing doesn’t help, as it reflects a noticeable percentage of the incident sunlight in the part of the spectrum that governs our hormonal balance. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research (ISC) have developed a coating for windows that lets in more light, in particular those wavelengths of light that have a beneficial effect on our sense of well-being.

While the human retina is most sensitive to light at the peak emission wavelength of sunlight, which brightens a room the most, Walther Glaubitt, a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Würzburg, says our biorhythms aren’t affected by these wavelengths. Rather, it is blue light that has an impact on our sense of well-being.

According to Glaubitt’s team colleague Dr. Jörn Probst, this is because there are special receptors at the end of the nerve connection that connect the human retina to the hypothalamus – the control center for the autonomic control system – that are sensitive to blue light. These receptors convert the blue light into light-and-dark signals that are sent to the part of the brain that functions as our biological clock, where, amongst other things, the nerve impulses regulate melatonin levels.

Melatonin levels help regulate the sleep-wake cycle, with high levels of melatonin caused by a lack of light leading to problems sleeping and concentrating, as well as depression and other psychological impairments. Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, can be one potential outcome from high melatonin levels.

The new coating, which Fraunhofer researchers developed with the help of industry partners, is particularly transmissive to light in the blue part of the spectrum - at wavelengths between 450 and 500 nanometers, but its transmissivity is increased across the entire range from 380 to 580 nanometers, which the researchers say is the portion of the spectrum responsible for promoting well-being. When applied to a window, the inorganic coating is barely perceptible as it is only 0.1 micrometers thick. It also has no effect on the heat-insulating properties of the window.

Currently, the ISC researchers have only applied the coating to the side of the glass that faces into the cavity between panes. They believe that coating both the inside and outside of the window will up the light transmissivity at 460 nanometers from the current 79 percent to around 98 percent.

UNIGLAS GmbH & Co. KG, which worked with Fraunhofer to bring the coating to market maturity, is set to launch a triple-glazing product featuring the coating, which is marketed under the name UNIGLAS | VITAL feel-good glass. This product boasts light transmissivity at 460 nanometers of 79 percent. However, this is with the coating only applied to the side of the glass facing into the cavity between panels. The ISC researchers believe that applying the coating to both the inside and outside of the windows, as they plan to do in the future, will result in windows with around 95 percent light transmissivity at 460 nanometers.

More news on this glass coating:

Science Blog

New glass coating makes you feel as if window is permanently open.

Feel-good glass for windows.

VITAL feel-good glass replaces pain with happy pane. 

Window Cleaning, The Sun & Working Inside

Interesting articles for window cleaners about how sun can effect your skin even whilst working inside...

Sunshine causes wrinkles through a window: Previous research has shown that basking in direct sunlight and shunning the sunscreen leads to wrinkles, but for those who thought their skin was safe while driving or sitting in a conservatory, here's an eye-opener. A study by a team of University College Hospital, Besancon, in France has revealed that the damage caused by sun coming through glass can be so dramatic that, over time, the side of the face exposed to the rays can end up looking up to seven years older than the other. A few hours sitting in a car during April results in skin damage, and even during autumn months the damage is far worse than previously realised, it has been found.

Glass does block out the sun's UVB rays, but about 50 per cent of UVA rays, associated with burning and ageing, do get through. The team demonstrated that a woman office worker or regular driver will age more quickly on the side where the skin faces the sun and heat - even through glass. "Participants showed significantly more clinical signs of facial ageing on one side of their face due to driving or working close to windows over many years," the Daily Mail quoted researchers as saying. Another study, by skin experts at Boots, found even a few hours sitting in a car in April resulted in skin damage linked to ageing.

Trevor McMillan and Sarah Allinson of the Lancaster University have shown that low dose UVA, equivalent to a British autumn day, causes up to a 50-fold increase in the expression of certain genes involved in photoageing - premature ageing of the skin from exposure to UV radiation. Professor John Hawk, an Emeritus Professor of dermatological photobiology and UVA expert, said: "We believe up to 90 per cent of the visible signs of ageing are due to the sun's ultraviolet radiation and more than 95 per cent of these are known to be UVA rays. "What's needed is a step-change in awareness of the damaging effects all year round, not just during summer holiday season."

Reading this article could open all those people’s eyes, who were under the impression that they are safe sitting in their cars or conservatories, whilst being exposed to direct sunlight, as the negative effect on the skin would be equivalent to basking under direct sunrays. A team of researchers of University College Hospital, Besancon, in France has outlined that the damage, which is caused by sun sieving through glass could be of serious level, since a person could end up looking many years older than his real age.

It has been found by this study that sitting for few hours in a car during the month of April results in grave level skin damage, and also, when autumn months start, sitting under direct sunlight sieved via glass could make one look older, which is something that people were unaware of. It is true that glass blocks the UVB rays of the sun, but at the same time, almost 50% of UVA rays that are related to burning of skin or ageing cannot be locked by it, as found by the study. The team illustrated that a woman sitting on the window side, who is exposed to sun rays, is likely to age faster than other women who are not exposed to sun rays.



They have concluded that UVA in sun rays, which can make lines worse and cause wrinkles, are able to penetrate glass and damage skin even while we are indoors. The team from the University College Hospital, Besançon, found that workers who sit near windows can look ten years older than those who don't. They also claimed that the side of the worker's face which has been facing the window, pictured left, would have aged more than the other side. The research - which also revealed that eight out of ten women don't think about protecting their face from UVA rays unless they are on holiday - was backed by Boots, who are introducing UVA sun protection into a line of their No7 moisturisers.