Professor Tariq Muneer is one of the leading experts in energy engineering in the UK. He is an international authority on the subject of solar radiation, daylight illuminance modelling and superinsulated windows, with over twenty year's experience in the development of the relevant mathematical models and their incorporation in building energy simulation packages.

Professor Muneer's much published works include: Solar Radiation and Daylight Models (available from Amazon.co.uk) for the Energy Efficient Design of Buildings and Windows in Buildings: Thermal, Acoustic, Visual and Solar Performance.

Solar sauna
Part of his studies involved the construction of a solar sauna using NorDan windows. Having experimented with various techniques of using solar energy he conceived the idea of building a solar powered sauna. The object was to demonstrate the potential in the sun's energy in the UK.

At the heart of his design he incorporated a high performance, triple-glazed window to act as a thermal diode, i.e. the window admits solar energy into the sun-space but restricts the leakage of outgoing heat. To date, two window designs, both using specially coated low-emissivity glass, have been tested. The respective energy loss indices (U-value in W/m²-K) of the above mentioned windows are 0.73 and 0.4. These indices are in sharp contrast to the U-value of a normal double glazed window, which is around 2.7 W/m²-K.

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