A breakthrough for coated glazing in Sweden. Will double-pane windows take over the market?

Abstract

Ever since the end of the 1970s triple-pane windows have been ”standard” in new construction of dwellings and non-residential premises in Sweden. The background was the first oil crisis in 1973, which led to a dramatic sharpening of the thermal requirements regarding the thermal envelope of Swedish buildings. These were introduced in the new building code SBN 75 which was brought into practice in 1976. The code required that windows should have a maximum permissible Uvalue of 2,0 W/m2K. With the technology available at that time, this required in practice that triple-pane windows were introduced, since the so-called low-e coated glazing still wasn’t good enough. The share of low-e coated windows has thus far been low in Sweden, and this could probably be attributed to the early introduction of the triple-pane window. However, during the last two to three years there has been en remarkable increase in the share of low-e coated windows