A New Jersey firm has found a way to provide energy-saving shading for windows at very little additional cost. Elliott Schlam, the principal of New Visual Media Group, says his firm has come up with a new take on the traditional window shade – a super-thin sheet of polymer film that’s installed inside insulating glazing units (IGUs).
“All of the dynamic window technologies are basically chemically oriented,” Schlam says. “Ours is an actual physical shade that’s coated with ink. The ink can block infrared light, so it’s very, very energy efficient. It’s available in any color and it offers full privacy, so it has a nice combination of features.”
The shade runs on static electricity, Schlam says, so there’s no motor. When voltage is applied, electrostatic forces cause the shade to roll down. When voltage is removed, it automatically rolls back up.
In 2012, New Visual Media Group received a $1 million grant from the Public Service Enterprise Group, a major utility company in New York and New Jersey, to develop what the company calls its ElectroPolymeric Display (EPD) technology which is used in these window shades.
Read More
