Energy Saving Window Covers?

[weeeds]

Our plant has excellent exposure to the sun throughout the day. With all the windows we have, in the winter time this is good but in the summer it is bad.
Anyone heard of a material that will let the sun's radiation through from one face and then stop the radiation by flipping it to the other face?
Anotherwords, in the summer it will block the sun's radiation and in the winter you would turn to the other side and it will let it though.
Any "magic" materials out there?
Thanks

 

[willard3]

No magic, bue low e glass with a pivot works fine.

Not inexpensive, but, compared to the cost of oil it's a bargain.

http://www.ecologicalinnovations.com/index.htm

 

[carnage1]

you could always tape up mylar survival blankets, still lets some light through but reflects all the heat out.

Luck is a difficult thing to verify and therefore should be tested often. - Me

 

[coldmaster]

There's a whole industry devoted to exterior shading. I'd be interested in using an exterior shade or "sun louver" that takes advantage of the different angle of the sun, summer vs winter. At winter angles the sun hits the glass, during summer time the glass is shaded.

 

[moltenmetal]

If you're in the right climate, deciduous trees are the ticket: leaves in summer, none in winter- and they fix CO2 from the atmosphere as well as providing some transpiration cooling. Take a while to grow, though.

 

[Rtune]

I do believe that there are window films that will reflect the majority of your summer sunshine and in winter they will reflect back your interior heat to a certain degree.

 

[IRstuff]

Sure, it's called Maxwell's Demon Coat ;-)

There are film materials that have integral louvers, similar to the privacy screens for laptops. The idea is that summer sun is higher in the sky and rays are blocked by the louvers. Winter sun is lower, and more of it passes through the louvers.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[ivymike]

at home I put the solar screens up in the spring and take them down in late fall...

 

[unclesyd]

Here is just one of many manufactures, 3M, of energy saving window film. This stuff works and you get a tax credit for using it.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/WF/3MWindowFilms/

 

[weeeds]

Than you all for your contributions.
I would like to know, though, if there is something that will allow us to have our cake and eat it too.
That is the covering rejects sun-generated heat in the summer and lets it through in the winter. The only way I can see this happening is that the material has two sides and one side rejects while the other accepts the energy.
This is why I refered to it as "magic".
I suspect that, if such a material exists, then it would be rather revolutionary.

 

[SomptingGuy]

Plus of course there's the great conspiracy to prevent such a material ever surfacing.

- Steve

 

[unclesyd]

There a films that do both like the one by Madico. There are several others that have similar films.

The reason you see more summertime rejection capabilities is the fact that cooling cost a lot more than heating.

http://www.madico.com/WindowFilms/MAC_Commercial.asp