Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: Kerry on 18/12/2009 09:54:24

Title: The future's bright
Post by: Kerry on 18/12/2009 09:54:24
http://www.labnews.co.uk/laboratory_article.php/5082/2/2/the-future%E2%80%99s-bright,-the-future-is-self-washing-windows

I feel sorry for the poor guys suspended from skyscrapers - I think this is a great idea - lets hope they put it into practice.
Title: The future's bright
Post by: Mazurka on 18/12/2009 10:50:25
I guess the technology/ mechanism is different, but isn't this ultimately similar to pilkington aktiv glass (http://www.pilkingtonselfcleaningglass.co.uk/pilkington-activ/ (http://www.pilkingtonselfcleaningglass.co.uk/pilkington-activ/)) which is already in the market?
Title: The future's bright
Post by: Kerry on 18/12/2009 10:57:05
I've not heard of Pilkington before, but I think you're right.  Their mechanism sounds a little different though. 

I wonder why they haven't approached/been approached companies making solar cells/owners of buildings - perhaps it's not feasable to put it into practice on large scale buildings?
Title: The future's bright
Post by: chris on 18/12/2009 11:28:54
Kerry

I don't mind you promoting your (very nice) articles that you've written at LabNews, but this forum is really about asking and answering science questions.

If you could, in future, therefore phrase your posts as questions and use them to answer or frame a science question for further discussion by forum members that would be more within the spirit (and rules) of the forum.

Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss this further.

Thanks.

Chris Smith, Managing Editor.
Title: The future's bright
Post by: Kerry on 18/12/2009 11:52:32
Sorry Chris - I just thought this was a great solution to a problem.  A lot of time and effort (and money) must go into maintaining windows/solar cells etc, and this struck me as a great idea which I wanted to share.  Admittedly maybe I could have phrased the title as a question - I will ensure I do so in the future.

I was interested to learn, thanks to Mazurka, that a similar technology is already being implemented commercially.  It makes you wonder, why if it's already out there it hasn't been used on a larger scale?
Title: The future's bright
Post by: glovesforfoxes on 18/12/2009 14:26:35
Quote
It makes you wonder, why if it's already out there it hasn't been used on a larger scale?

Change requires time, & change on a massive scale requires more time.
Title: The future's bright
Post by: Kerry on 18/12/2009 15:18:14
I wonder if it's in the pipeline? The BBC wrote an article on it in 2004: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3770353.stm

Perhaps one of the factors is money - it looks to be quite a bit more expensive - the article states about 15-20% more although this figure may have reduced in the last five years
Title: The future's bright
Post by: LeeE on 18/12/2009 22:03:14
Kerry@labnews: you've written articles about glass but claim to have never heard of Pilkington?  I'm afraid that's just not really plausible and sounds a bit bogus to me.  How little research did you do, to have not encountered Pilkington?