Low-E glass
Every warm surface radiates heat, and emissivity is simply how readily it lets go of it. A low-emissivity coating is a metallic layer a few atoms thick that makes glass a poor radiator and a good mirror at those long wavelengths — so a pane baking in the afternoon sun hands far less of that heat on into the room, and conditioned air loses far less of its coolness back out through the window. It can go into almost any sealed unit. What changes from job to job is which of the four glass faces it goes on, and in this climate that is not the answer a European specification would give.
- a mirror for long-wave heat
- soft or hard two coat families
- surface two where it sits here
What is decided about the coating
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Silver based
Soft coat
Sputtered, must be sealed in
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Fused in
Hard coat
Laid onto the hot glass ribbon
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Outer pane, cavity side
Position here
It meets the sun first
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Temperable or not
Processing
Settled before the pane is cut
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Neutral
Appearance
Checked against the facade
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Advantages of working with us
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In-house production
Windows, doors and glazed structures are made at our own factory in the UAE. Manufacturing takes 3–5 weeks from the survey, and the dates are written into the contract.
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Room measurement
After a free consultation, an engineer comes to measure within 48 hours and answers the technical questions on site — openings, profile, glass and hardware.
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Delivery of products
We deliver with our own transport across Dubai and all Emirates, and the installation date is agreed in advance so the crew arrives with the finished units.
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Installation on site
A "clean" installation is carried out – all construction debris is removed, and dust and dirt are cleaned. Work can be conducted with or without your presence. The date and time are discussed individually.
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Guarantee
The structures we make and the installation our crews carry out are covered by one warranty under one contract. The profile system also carries the manufacturer's warranty — up to 20 years, depending on the system.
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Service
Warranty cases are handled by the same crews that did the installation: send the address and photos, and in most cases we can say before the visit whether it is an adjustment, a gasket or a glass unit.
How the low-E specification is settled
- Orientation of each elevation surveyed Engineer on site within 48 hours
- Job of the coating named first Turn the sun back, or hold the cool in
- Coat family chosen Soft coat sealed in, hard coat where exposed
- Glass face fixed on the unit drawing Faces numbered from outside in
- Coating stripped where the seal must bond A soft coat is deleted around the rim
- Units assembled in our Dubai factory One coating batch per elevation
Brands we work with
Articles
The honest downside
Low-E glass has a narrower job than it sounds
A low-E coating is part of a new sealed unit, not something added to glass already in the frame. If the windows are sound and the complaint is one hot room, replacing units to gain a coating is a large job for a narrow gain.
A coating tuned mainly for emissivity also does less against direct sun than people expect. It works on the heat a warm pane hands on, not on the sunlight arriving, and on a west elevation in August that is the smaller half of the problem. Metal-based coatings can also weaken the mobile signal indoors, which some people notice in rooms glazed on several sides.
For a sunlit west or south elevation, a solar-control coating does the heavier work. Low-E on its own remains a sound choice on shaded and north faces, where little sun arrives but the conditioned room still loses its coolness through the glass.
Consider instead
Solar control glass
Frequently asked questions
Low emissivity — and it is a property of a surface, not of the glass behind it. Everything warm gives off heat as long-wave radiation, and emissivity describes how freely a surface parts with it. Bare glass is a generous radiator: a pane heated by the afternoon sun quietly radiates that warmth onward into the room for hours after the sun has moved. A low-E coating makes the surface a poor radiator and a good reflector at those wavelengths, so the heat is turned back the way it came instead of being passed on.
They overlap, and the two words get used loosely. Solar control is about the sunlight arriving — short-wave energy striking the pane, and how much of it is turned away before it gets in. Low-E is about long-wave heat that warm surfaces radiate, in either direction. Modern coatings are usually asked to do both at once, which is what a multifunctional stack is. Where the ideas separate is a shaded north elevation: barely any sun arrives, yet the room still radiates and the glass still re-radiates, so a low-E face still pays for itself.
The faces are numbered from outside in, and the choice between the second and the third changes the whole behaviour of the unit. On surface two — the cavity side of the outer pane — the coating meets solar energy before it has crossed the cavity and turns it back outdoors. On surface three, the cavity side of the inner pane, it works mainly on heat leaving the room, which is exactly what a cold country wants. Here we specify surface two on the sunlit elevations, because keeping the sun out of the cavity is the whole battle. The face is written on the unit drawing, never left to the bench.
It would not survive there. A soft coat is a silver-bearing stack laid on cold glass in a vacuum chamber, and it is fragile — coastal air, cleaning cloths and rain would take it apart within a season. So it is always sealed inside the unit facing the cavity, and a narrow band is stripped off around the rim so the edge seal bonds to bare glass. A hard coat is laid onto the glass while it is still hot on the float line and is tough enough to face the weather, which is why self-cleaning glass and single-glazed applications come from that family instead.
Related pages
Nearby pages and the rest of the catalogue.
- Acoustic glass
- Double glazed units
- Laminated security glass
- Multifunctional glass
- Self-cleaning glass
- Solar control glass
- Tinted glass
- Triple glazed units
Sections
Company
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Main Office
Dubai — Showroom
The Pinnacle Building, Sheikh Zayed Road, Office 607
Mon–Fri: 9:00 – 18:00
Showroom
Samples to see in person
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Dubai — Showroom
The Pinnacle Building, Sheikh Zayed Road, Office 607
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