Shades are made from thin plastic film that is processed in a roll-to-roll fashion. It is coated with ink of any color, pattern and optical density.
The film is then heat treated to form a tightly wrapped roll and installed into any Insulated Glazing Unit (IGU).
The IGU may then be installed into any window frame or directly installed into a commercial building.
The coatings may be selected to provide an extremely low Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) of 0.034 or lower. This is almost three times better than the SHGC reported for electrochromic windows and almost seven times better than that reported for the best available coated glass IGUs. This remarkably low SHGC can provide substantial energy savings for homeowners and commercial establishments when operated in an automated fashion. The built-in sensors can monitor solar radiation, temperature, time, room occupancy and ambient lighting to control the shade position to maximize energy savings. With the shade up, SHGC and Visible Light Transmission (VLT) are as good as or better than that of any ordinary Low E coated IGU.
Shade control may be manually overridden through the use of a local switch or touch panel, or wirelessly, including operation with an internet-connected device with a smartphone app.