Solar Shading So *Frit*ting Beautiful – You’ll Forget It’s for Comfort

Wellness is integral to workplace happiness and productivity. Comfort is an important component when considering wellness in a productive building. Specifically, solar shading should be addressed. Glare and solar heat gain are undesirable side effects of an ill-selected glazing product. Choosing the right glazing for your local climate and for your building’s orientation will go a long way to ensuring that occupancy comfort and productivity is optimized. Tinted and reflective substrate options should be reviewed as well as various high-performance low-e coatings.

To assist the benefit of these solutions while amplifying your overall aesthetic consider ceramic frit.

Ceramic frit paint is comprised of minute glass particles, inorganic pigments, and a medium to mix the two together to create a desired color. The frit is applied to one surface of the glass (most commonly surface 2). Glass painted with ceramic frit is then heat strengthened or fully tempered to prevent glass breakage and to assist with frit to glass adherence. The bond between frit and glass after this process creates a new composition, which is immovable and permanent.

Gaining in popularity, ceramic frit allows some direct light penetration and can work to reflect unwanted light. Utilize a pattern that provides nearly full coverage at the top of the window where sunlight emitted is too bright and too directional for the longest period of the day. Reduce or invert the pattern gradually as you progress down the window to allow better access to views and to enhance the emittance of natural light within the space.

Using cutting-edge digital printers, there are now nearly limitless opportunities for patterns, colors, and frit coverage to assist with reducing glare and solar heat gain which will help make your office *frit*ting productive.