Cool new products on display in Vegas

Windows, fans, PV panels, and ICFs
LAS VEGAS, NV — Wandering the trade show floor at the International Builders' Show in Las Vegas today, I stumbled upon several intriguing new products. Here are four of them.

Serious Materials (www.seriousmaterials.com), a window manufacturer that recently acquired Alpen Windows, has made several improvements to Alpen’s line of windows with pultruded fiberglass frames. Serious Materials windows are available with Heat Mirror glazing from Southwall Technologies. If you choose Serious Materials’ 1125 glazing — a Heat Mirror product that amounts to quintuple glazing (two layers of glass and three layers of mylar film with low-e coatings) — you end up with an amazingly low whole-window U-factor somewhere between 0.08 and 0.09 (equivalent to R-11). Serious Materials has obtained NFRC ratings on all of their Heat Mirror windows. Plan on spending at least $1,000 for a casement window with 1125 glazing.

American Aldes (www.americanaldes.com) has a new series of supply ventilation fans and exhaust ventilation fans called the Ventergy series. All Ventergy fans meet Energy Star requirements. The fans can be ordered to meet precise ASHRAE 62.2 ventilation requirements for a specific home; each fan is delivered with plastic flow control valves — constant airflow regulators — to deliver the required airflow.

Sanyo (www.sanyo.com/solar) is now selling a new two-directional photovoltaic module, the HIT Double. The translucent PV panels are usually used for solar awnings and shade structures. HIT Double modules generate electricity on both sides; most of the power is generated on the side facing the sun, but a small amount of additional power is generated from light bouncing off pavement and hitting the underside of the panels.

A manufacturer of insulated concrete forms (ICFs) called Logix (www.logixicf.com) manufactures a line of ICFs (the XR line) with high R-values. The XR forms can be ordered with the following foam thicknesses: 2 3/4 in., 4 in., 5 in., 6 in., 7 in., and 8 in. The interior EPS thickness can differ from the exterior; for example, it’s possible to order Logix ICFs with 2 3/4 in. of foam on the interior and 8 in. of foam on the exterior. The ICFs with the highest available R-value have 8 in. on both sides, for a total R-value of 66.