Façade Integrated Self-Cleaning System
Large glass surfaces and facades must be maintained by landlords for a number of reasons. Image and reputation are one but demand from tenants is equally important. This creates high maintenance costs that are typically charged back to tenants through the management fee. Total occupation costs of tenants are thereby increased and the competitive position of a building (everything else being equal) decreases. So does its potential capital value.
Property investment decisions are made on income and cash flow bases. If higher maintenance costs cause rents to be lower, the capital value of the property investment decreases by most traditional investment calculations.
Intelligent buildings generally have lower maintenance costs and better appearance. They are a more attractive investment and have higher capital value. Investing in systems that make a building more intelligent are therefore worthwhile capital investments that have identifiable returns.
On average, incorporating IKU® intelligent building elements increase capital value of a building by 2% and has a payback period of 2.2 years. This makes the incorporation of intelligent building elements a compelling case for large scale developers. If such developers can also participate in the engineering aspects of the solution, the attractiveness of their investment increases.
IKU® windows self-cleaning system
The intelligent self-cleaning façade works with a standard water supply connected with an adding device for cleaning detergent that is sprayed onto the glass surface. Wipers integrated in external profiles move up and down the building and clean the facade.
Customised parameters can be set for how much water is sprayed, for how long and the frequency with which the wipers move over the facade. The water system can at the same time be used as fire suppression system. Initiation of the cleaning process can be automated, manually controlled, or attached to a rain or moisture sensor. The fire suppression system is automated and relies on sensors.
Benefits of the integrated cleaning system:
- Cost saving
- Short payback period
- Convenient – operates by the touch of a button – clean towers within hours
- Integration in central control system
- Automated cleaning through integrated sensor (humidity, rain)
- Independence from external cleaning services
- Privacy and security
- Safe cleaning even in high rise buildings
- Cleaning of facades difficult to access (basically every high-rise façade)
- Cleaning of integrated photovoltaic / solar cells – Efficiency!
- Simultaneous use as fire suppression system
Usage of cleaner, water and energy are lower than for manual maintenance and environmentally more friendly.
Integrated Curtain Wall System
Curtain wall system with integrated self-cleaning
IKU® is able to provide a concept which does not just offer all the benefits of using pre-assembled facade elements but, at the same time, overcomes the problem of facade cleaning. The cleaning system is incorporated in the facade elements and operates at the touch of a button.
Fabrication and installation of the façade elements is faster and more efficient than other unitized systems, due to no silicon used in the fabrication process. Glass is fixed mechanically and can be changed from inside if necessary.
Maintenance Solutions for Existing Buildings
Most recent buildings have not planned for the maintenance of glass and diaphanous facades, translucent building elements and exposed surfaces. They conclude maintenance contracts with professional organisations and need to accept that capabilities of maintenance and cleaning firms are limited by structural impediments and that cleaning is done as best they can. Consequently, many cities and communities have poorly maintained and cleaned facades and buildings elements to the detriment of the overall appearance.
A typical glass tower is between 100-300 meters high with a glass façade of 10,000-50,000 square meters. The traditional approach in providing for external cleaning equipment is an investment of between USD 350,000 and USD 1,200,000. This gives a cost per square meter glass façade of around USD 24-45.
The IKU® solutions require an upfront investment of around USD 60-120 per square meter glass façade depending on the complexity of the exterior resulting in an investment that is typically about twice as high. However, the IKU® system is fully automated and does not generate any additional costs except consumables.
For some buildings, the cost of traditional cleaning equipment can be relatively low. Even then, the investment pays back in IKU® systems is, depending on the frequency of cleaning, not more than five years.
On average, retrofitting has a capital investment of around US$250-400 per m square, half the price of stripping and re-cladding and a payback period of some three years. Large projects are difficult to quantify since retro-fitting costs depend largely on the cost and ability to access the surfaces that are already installed.
