Empire State Building to Save $400,000/Yr with Green Windows

April 17th, 2010 by Zachary Shahan

The Empire State Building is in the middle of a green makeover. It is aiming to reduce energy usage by about 38%. Next on the makeover list is a change to its 6,500 windows. This improvement is predicted to not only protect the environment from tons of CO2 emissions, but also save $400,000 a year.

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“The current double glazed windows will be taken out, and the existing insulating materials between their two panes will be replaced with a film that has been developed by insulation firm Southwall,” Danny Bradbury of Business Green reports.

This new technology is referred to as “Heat Mirror”. This insulating film traps heat from the building or coming in from the sun outside by increasing the number of cavities within a double-glazed window.

Southwall reports that Heat Mirror improves the insulating value of windows from R2 to R8.

This window upgrade is one part of a $13.2 million program to reduce the building’s energy use by 38% and cut the energy bill by $4.4 million a year in the process. This window improvement, if the estimate is accurate, would take care of nearly 10% of that aim.

The Clinton Climate Initiative, real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, the Rocky Mountain Institute, and Johnson Controls make up the Empire State Building retrofit team.

Image Credit: Wherever I Roam via flickr under a CC license

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Tags: Clinton Climate Initiative, Empire State, empire state building, green building, Green buildings, Heat Mirror, johnson controls, Jones Lang LaSalle, RMI, rocky mountain institute, Southwall, window, window insulation, windows

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.