High Solar Gain Low E Glass Windows (Sunroom)

karimwassef

Active member
I'm looking at a mixed sunlit / artificial light tank and the only way to do this is in a sunroom.

As I learn more about sunrooms and glass options, It looks like high solar gain, low e glass is the way to go.

Does anyone have experience doing this in a sunroom/greenhouse or just in your house with the light landing on your tank?
 
kinda like this:

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/1_zpswcgtgi2o.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/1_zpswcgtgi2o.png" border="0" alt=" photo 1_zpswcgtgi2o.png"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/0_zpsth5imjnm.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/0_zpsth5imjnm.png" border="0" alt=" photo 0_zpsth5imjnm.png"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/0d5_zpsrhqh2ljy.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/0d5_zpsrhqh2ljy.png" border="0" alt=" photo 0d5_zpsrhqh2ljy.png"/></a>
 
On the real, u may get too much algae growth with that much natural light. Solartubes are one thing, but tanks near windows getting direct light all day is another
 
No. That's just so I can get scale in the images for my wife to visualize.

I have a lot of light in my current tank. Algae will grow under halides too :)

I get some evening sun now and my corals love it.
 
Not a lot of people do natural-light tanks due to the lack of an appropriate place to put the tank, control of the light, and seasonal variation. I do suspect Low-E glass would be good (blocking infrared) but you'd likely want to make sure it didn't block too much of the higher frequencies (deep blues).

Hopefully the lady looks more-or-less like your wife, else your wife might get the wrong idea... ;)
 
That's what I want feedback on. Here's what I've learned from Google

Low e = cuts IR (heat) down to 70%
High solar gain = allows higher frequencies in (light + UV) but it cuts light to 75% and UV to 45%.

I'll post some of it here
 
Lowe_Spectrum.jpg
Insulating-DiagramFig6.gif
ppg_overview3.png
viraconve.jpg
fig187.jpg
 
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There are other variables too, such as variability during seasons changing the angle of the sunlight

Figure3-11.jpg
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which impacts the effectiveness of the glass.

PD-Glazing-SolarGain_fmt1.png


I'm looking at glass ceiling as well, so that should keep the influx a little more consistent year round, but the incidence angle still matters.

The location of the sunroom also matters

sun%20move.gif
ysh01.jpg
 
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Okay! I wasn't sure what "high solar gain" meant in terms of frequencies transmitted (which is why I didn't comment on that). From what you've shown, it does appear low-E high solar gain would be the way to go - and you'd likely want to look for particular brands that do better on the infrared side, while allowing as much non-UV light at the high end as possible. Getting their specific spectra graphs might help for comparison's sake.

In terms of angles: Your design looks almost flat on top, which will allow a lot of light during the summer from the flat part of the roof. (Caveat: not sure about Dallas sun angles ... Obviously less so than here.) During the winter you may get most/a significant part of the light through the curved bit on the end, which could decrease the amount of light the tank gets during those months. Decreasing and increasing the amount of light, while quite natural, is going to have affects on the growth of algae and could make it difficult to achieve a good balance year round... Not impossible, but difficult. You won't get much light for the tanks through the vertical glass.

If could help to slope the roof part more, if that's possible, or to increase the slope halfway across in order to try to even out the amount of seasonal change from sun angles.

Other concerns:
- Many corals colors' pop under very blue light. (They naturally live deeper under water than your aquarium, and the water filters out the reds from the sunlight.) The sunlight is fine for good growth, but isn't going to be nicely blue. Your corals will likely look brownish/washed out in terms of color. How to get around that: supplement the sunlight with actinics.

- High solar gain, even with low-E, with all that glass, is going to make for a mighty warm room ... in Dallas... Be ready for high electric bills in order to keep that room comfortable. Also, that room will have a significantly different temperature profile from the rest of the house. In other words: If the thermostat is in that space, the rest of the house will be cold. If the thermostat isn't in that space, that space will be hot. You'll almost certainly want to supplement the cooling in that space in order to control the humidity and temperature properly. The few sunlit tanks I've seen have had the tank itself in a separate space from the house with fans used to pull outside air through that space so that it wouldn't need to be actively cooled to temperatures comfortable for us humans.
 
I'm using Sketchup so I can model the light and shadows to the day and hour. Really nice feature.

I've already flipped the design based on it.
 
Here's the updated view. It has an internal tank room adjacent. It's south facing and open top.

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/0_zpsvmlqbeec.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/0_zpsvmlqbeec.png" border="0" alt=" photo 0_zpsvmlqbeec.png"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/1_zps8qt4tce7.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/1_zps8qt4tce7.png" border="0" alt=" photo 1_zps8qt4tce7.png"/></a>
 
Here are the shadows from 4am to 8am for the first of every month for a year. Sketchup can be a really great tool for planning.

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/Animation_zpsetmdy30e.gif.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/Animation_zpsetmdy30e.gif" border="0" alt=" photo Animation_zpsetmdy30e.gif"/></a>
 
So from the longest day of the year to the shortest, I would have at least 5 hours of direct light and up to 10 hours in the summer.

Now I just need to pick the right window glass.
 
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