Technology Converts Single-Pane Windows to Triple-Glazed

December 12, 2012 by Linda Hardesty

The owner of the Kevon Office Center in Pennsauken, NJ, decided to update the building’s 651 clear, single-pane windows, which were originally installed in 1971, with the Renovate by Berkowitz (RbB) window retrofitting system.

RbB converts single-pane windows into energy-saving, triple-glazed insulated glass units (IGUs). The Renovate system is an interior glazing method of hermetically sealing a factory made IGU to an existing monolithic glass window, with a special warm-edge triseal, to create a triple glazed unit.

The basic component of the Renovate triple glazing system is the IGU, which is fabricated by JE Berkowitz.

The EPA estimates that drafty, inefficient windows account for as much as 25 percent of a typical building’s heating load in cold climates and 50 percent of the cooling load in warm climates.

Arthur Berkowitz, president of JE Berkowitz, said simulations using energy-modeling software showed that the RbB system could enable Kevon Office Center to lower its annual energy costs by up to 26 percent. Kevon Office Center already is an Energy Star building, receiving a 90 on the EPA’s energy performance scale of 1-to-100, according to Kaiserman Company, owner of the building. The installation of the RbB system will improve the building’s Energy Star rating.

Kevon Office Center represents the second major installation of the RbB system by Kaiserman. Last year, the company installed the RbB system at 400 Market Street, a 12-story office building in Philadelphia, which served as part of a Department of Energy-sponsored study that is now nearing completion.