After visiting our site, you might now be well aware of the ways heat reduction window film can keep your space from overheating from the warmth of direct sunlight, but could window film hold the key to also heating your space in its future?
The answer is apparently yes, after researchers at the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) revealed this week that a transparent film that can be applied to windows in order to harness the power of the sun.
According to Dezeen, the film stores sunlight by transforming energy into a chemical change, which can be saved and released back as heat when needed.
The team behind the project, made up of professor Jeffrey Grossman, researcher David Zhitomirsky and student Eugene Cho, said that it was a new way to harness the energy of the sun for use when it isn’t a sunny day. “For the sun to become a major power provider for human needs, there has to be an efficient way to save it up for use during nighttime and stormy days,” they said.
Not only does this have application on buildings, like traditional insulation window film, but also in car windshields (acting as a deicing system) and even wearable technology to warm the user.
While it might be on its way, the researchers are still developing the film further, looking to remove some of its yellow tinge and make it more transparent. It’s so far unknown how this could possibly work with other window films, such as bomb blast protection film and others.
