Comments on: Self-Cleaning Glass: Pilkington Activ Glass

By: Michael L.

Michael L. — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:20:59 +0000

Hi Philip Lyons,

My house has 30 windows and all of them had been treated. I did not get the Pilkington glass. I had someone to installed it for me. The cost is far less and they are still working just fine. I had self clean windows for about 3 years now and it is going on the 4th year. I had seem the Pilkington glass with coating on this. I am not sure if they didn’t do the job right or not but it didnt work.

By: malcolm fairbairn

malcolm fairbairn — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:21:52 +0000

“However, it also provides an approximate 20 percent reduction in ultraviolet light transmission over clear glass and equivalent energy efficiency.”

I don’t get this. OK you might not want UV light coming into your house because of skin cancer etc, but what has that got to do with “equivalent energy efficiency”. Surely blocking out more radiation will reduce the solar heating of your house making it less efficient? (I am assuming here that UV radiation coming into your house would get absorbed and re-emitted as infra-red). Incidentally, some people like glass that lets in UV for vitamin purposes. The glass is a great idea because it cuts out the use of detergent, but when its blurb contains meaningless “science-babble” it damages its own credibility.

By: Nige

Nige — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 21:22:55 +0000

I use a similar stuff on my car windscreen called “Rainaway”. At speed the use for windscreen wipers is not needed (40mph+) as the rain blows off the window.

By: Philip Lyons

Philip Lyons — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:17:44 +0000

Can someone tell me if Pilkington ‘Activ’ self-cleaning glass actually works when installed?
Comments on Saint Gobain-’Aquaclean’ would also be appreciated.