For commercial buildings with a lot of large windows, such as glass office buildings and high rises, the sunlight that comes through those windows has its pros and cons.
Large amounts of natural light and sweeping views of the outdoors contribute to a positive working environment, but that same sunlight can also lead to excessive solar heat gain, glare, and harmful UV rays.
Fortunately, there’s a cost-effective solution: solar window film for commercial buildings.
What Is Solar Window Film for Commercial Properties?
Solar window film, also commonly known as solar control window film or sun control film, is a special coating that consists of many thin layers of a spectrally selective window film that blocks out most solar heat, glare, and UV rays.
This window film gets applied directly to existing commercial glass surfaces, including windows and doors, and contributes to reduced energy use, enhanced comfort, and increased UV protection.
Commercial solar control window film does this all without significantly reducing the amount of natural light that comes in through windows or inhibiting views, allowing building occupants to continue enjoying all the benefits of all their windows — without the drawbacks.
Benefits of solar window film for commercial buildings:
- Blocks up to 97% of infrared light (that we feel as heat)
- Improves commercial window energy efficiency
- Blocks up to 99.9% of harmful UV rays (that cause furnishing to fade and can damage skin)
- Prolongs the lifetimes of commercial facility furnishings
- Increases building tenant comfort and productivity
- Significantly decreases glare
- Reduces reliance on AC systems
- Doesn’t block natural light or reduce visibility
- Can become carbon negative in as few as 6 months from install
- Provide a strong return on investment (ROI)
Does sun control window film change the appearance of commercial building windows?
By default, solar control window films are minimally reflective, and shouldn’t significantly alter the appearance of your commercial building’s windows.
However, if you do want to give your commercial property a facelift, or add privacy, sun control films can be combined with tinted, colored, or reflective window films to achieve the results and performance you want.
For example, let’s say you own an older commercial building, and it’s looking more and more outdated by the year as new buildings pop up around it.
To keep up with the trends and maintain curb appeal to potential building tenants, you could apply a highly reflective sun control film to your property’s windows and doors to receive all the performance benefits as well as improve the aesthetics of your building.
Or, if you want to add privacy to an office building where occupants are working near to windows, you might choose a dark gray-tinted finish.
There are even color-shifting window film finishes that make your building’s windows change color depending on how sunlight hits them throughout the day.
Really, whatever appearance you’re going for, there’s a window film option to complement your architectural style and goals.
How Sun Control Window Film for Commercial Buildings Provides a Return on Investment
As we mentioned earlier, one of the biggest benefits of commercial solar window film is that it drastically reduces the amount of infrared light that comes through your windows, which is what leads to solar heat gain.
Solar heat gain is the term for increased indoor temperatures caused by sunlight transferring heat through glass. This is what causes many commercial facilities to run their AC systems constantly throughout the day.
If you rely heavily on AC to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures for tenants, you know how expensive this can make your monthly utility bills.
Well, after you install sun control film on all your building’s windows and doors, you should start to notice a significant decrease in your monthly utility costs right away.
Because of the increased energy efficiency and reduced need to run AC systems, solar control film can often pay for itself with the ROI it provides in a very short amount of time.
Of course, the exact amount of time it takes to see a full return on your investment depends on many factors, such as the size of your commercial property, how many windows it has, and other aspects of the building’s construction that affect energy efficiency.
But, increased energy efficiency isn’t the only way that solar control window film can provide an ROI.
If you opt to install reflective, tinted, or colored window film to give your property a contemporary facelift, the improved aesthetics can increase curb appeal and attract more potential building tenants.
A modern appearance combined with modern energy efficiency and comfort are both big draws for prospective tenants, making it easier to maintain high building occupancy rates and improve your net operating income (NOI).
Summary of how solar control window film provides an ROI:
- Improves overall building energy efficiency
- Reduces utility costs (less need to run AC all day)
- Boosts curb appeal of commercial buildings
- Helps attract new building tenants
- Higher building occupancy = better NOI
What Commercial Solar Window Film Does Campbell Offer?
Campbell Glass and Films is an authorized dealer and installer of 3M Prestige Series Sun Control Window Film, which is considered the best solar window film on the market.
Once thought of as a luxury purchase, this Prestige Series window film is now quite an affordable, cost-effective option for commercial building owners looking to improve building energy efficiency, comfort, and aesthetics.
We also offer a full range of other commercial window films, including reflective, colored, and tinted films that can be used to upgrade the appearance of your building’s facade.
We can even do a full facade re-imaging that incorporates a combination of high-performance and aesthetically pleasing window films and building wraps to fully modernize older buildings, improving how people perceive them from both inside and out.
If you’re interested in making an investment in your commercial windows that will allow you to start seeing an ROI from day one, contact us today for a free quote on commercial solar window film installation.
