Albotherm are developing glass coatings that reversibly transition from transparent to white to reduce solar gain in hot weather, allowing buildings and greenhouses to regulate their own temperature without electrical input. Our coatings are tunable to transition temperatures between 18 °C and 45 °C to create comfortable internal temperatures in a range of climates.    

Temperature regulation is one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions with air conditioning alone accounting for 20% of electricity usage from buildings and 10% of total global electricity usage. Glass buildings in particular have problems with overheating as they trap solar radiation.

This technology has been developed at the University of Bristol and is being continued at Albotherm by our CTO Dr Sian Fussell and Scientific Advisor Professor Paddy Royall.

Applications

Albotherm’s responsive coatings are suitable for any application that needs constant and precise temperature regulation. Our current areas of interest include; 

Food Production - Maintaining optimal growing conditions year-round is an energy intensive process, with thermal regulation in agriculture one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Passive solutions are also used, but these suffer from an inability to respond to temperature changes, ultimately reducing crop yields.  We see our coating as presenting a solution that both improves crop yield while reducing thermal management emissions.  

Commercial buildings – Thermal management in buildings is energy intensive, with widely used air conditioning units contributing heavily to global greenhouse emissions, with 100 million tonnes released annually in the US alone. Albotherm’s smart coatings will provide a way to manage temperatures inside buildings like large glass skyrises and warehouses without the need for high energy solutions, saving both global emissions and the costs for end users.  

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