Toned glass, often referred to as tinted glass, is made by including colouring additives to normal clear glass during the manufacturing process. Most commonly found in shades of bronze, grey, blue or green, toned glass significantly reduces glare and heat gain from the sun.
Supertoned glass (also known as supertinted) uses a heavier pigmentation to provide even greater solar heat control. This deeper coloured glass will provide adequate visible light into your home while reducing your air-conditioning costs.
The benefits of toned glass
Tinted glass windows are particularly suited to warmer climates when ideal window orientation is not achievable. The coloured glass tint minimises the amount of heat coming into the home by absorbing a greater proportion of solar heat compared to clear glass. It is particularly useful for minimising the impact of the sun on unshaded windows when you have views you wish to keep unobstructed by shading devices.
Toned glass will not reduce the amount of heat conducted through it, only the amount of sunlight that can enter. For this reason, toned glass is often used with double glazing to improve your window’s solar and thermal performance at the same time.
Supertones are a further extension of the toned glass family with even greater solar performance. They absorb more heat than standard toned glass to keep your home cooler in hot summers. In addition, supertoned glass provides better protection against fading by blocking out more ultra-violet radiation.
What to look for
- Glass colour
- Glass thickness
Glass colour
Bronze and grey tones will reduce both the heat (infrared radiation) transmitted through the window and the glare of strong sunshine (visible light) in equal measure, however you may find you’re not getting enough natural daylight coming into your home. Choosing blue or green toned glass tend to have a higher ratio of visible light to solar heat transmittance but will not generally block as much heat as other coloured tints.
Supertoned glass colours act in a similar way to toned glass, with grey and bronze supertones reducing more heat gain than their green and blue counterparts, but with less visible light passing through.
Glass thickness
When the thickness of toned glass is increased, so does the colour density and ultimately the amount of visible light coming into the home. Try to avoid using different thicknesses of toned glass if you want to achieve colour uniformity throughout.
Common problems
Toned glass will reduce the amount of sunlight entering your home in winter as well as in summer. For this reason, the use of toned glass in north facing windows is not recommended if you want to harness the winter sun to warm your home. In colder climates, free heating from the winter sun is often used to reduce heating costs.
Using toned glass can decrease the amount of natural daylight entering the home. To check how toned glass can affect the light coming into your home, you can check the visible transmittance (VT) of the glass. The higher the visible transmittance value, the more light is transmitted through the glass. Different colours and supertones will have different visible transmittance values with blues and greens allowing more visible light.
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