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Material Specifications

Material specifications for materials likely to be used in solar projects -- including glazing, pipe, insulation, ...

Directory for this page:

Windows and Glass
Plastic Glazing and Plastics
Piping and Plumbing
Insulation & R Values
Specific Heat, Emissivity, ..
Permeability
Roofing Materials

Note that some of the companies listed under "Solar Suppliers" provide extensive technical data.

Windows and Glass
Efficient Windows www.efficientwindows.org/index.cfm	Good information on choosing windows for your exposure, climate, aims... Try the "Window Selection Tool".
Pilkington Glass http://www.pilkington.com	Good technical data on a wide variety of glasses and some useful calculators.
http://www.pnl.gov/fta/13_glazings/13_glazings.htm	Good write up on spectrally selective glazing.
Plastic Glazing and Plastics
Macrolux Plastic Glazing http://www.co-excorp.com/ Page with useful pdfs: http://www.co-excorp.com/pdf.htm Good rundown on multiwall polycarbonate: http://www.co-excorp.com/artwork/mac.pdf	Co-EX is a manufacturer of plastic glazing products, including Macrolux multi wall polycarbonate glazing. Their website provides a good deal of useful technical information.
Good Data Sheet on SunTuf Polycarbonate Glazing	Lots of detail on the SunTuf polycarbonate glazing material.
Boedeker Plastics Plastics properties and selection guides http://www.boedeker.com/mtable.htm http://www.boedeker.com/mguide.htm	Material properties and selection information for a wide variety of plastics.
Specs for a wide variety of plastics http://www.interstateplastics.com/specifications/	Specifications for a wide variety of plastics: Acrylic, Nylon, PVC, Polycarbonate, HDPE, ...
Thermal Conductivies of Materials http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com	Thermal conductivities of many materials. Engineering Toolbox
Material Specs on High Temperature Plastics http://www.texloc.com	Material specs on some high temperature plastics, including PTFE (Teflon).
Teflon, Tefzel, and Tedlar	These products from DuPont may may be a good choice in thin films for an inner layer of glazing for solar collectors. If you know of a good source for these films in small quantities, please let me know -- Gary. More ...
Piping and Plumbing Analysis and Properties
Endot Industries http://www.endot.com/support/installation.asp	Specifications, material properties, application data, pressure loss tables, ... for various flavors of Polyethylene pipe.
Pipe Loss Calculator http://www.connel.net/freeware/flowcalc1.shtml	Calculates pressure losses, velocity, ... for water or water/glycol flow in pipes.
Copper.Org www.copper.org	Search for "The Copper Tube Handbook" -- 7mb of more than you will ever need to know about copper tubing/pipe size, geometry, ratings, ...
Boedeker Plastics Plastics properties and selection guides http://www.boedeker.com/mtable.htm http://www.boedeker.com/mguide.htm	Material properties and selection information for a wide variety of plastics.
Vanguard Piping Systems http://www.vanguardpipe.com/paltechdata.htm http://www.vanguardpipe.com/litlib.html	Lots of data on PEX tubing, including some test results.
Insulation -- R Values
Insulation Fact Sheet Fairbanks University Cooperative Extension Service	A very good table providing information on all the common (and not so common) types of insulation. R values, application suitability, pro/con, max service temperature, ... Very Useful, and, as far as I can see, unbiased (which is hard to find in insulation info on the Internet).
R Value Tables http://www.p1m.com/rv.htm http://coloradoenergy.org/procorner/stuff/r-values.htm	A couple R value tables for various materials, including common building materials.
Expanded Polystyrene Foam Specs	Material specs for the expanded polystyrene rigid foam board insulation. This is the white, rigid foam board that is commonly available at home centers.
NIST Heat Transmission Properties of Insulating and Building Materials http://srdata.nist.gov/insulation/	An database of thermal conductivity values for a wide range of materials. Not the easiest to use, but it does provide conductivity measurements for a wide variety of materials all tested using the same procedure. The easiest way to use the database appears to be go to the database search form, set the units you want, pick the "Material" from the drop-down list, and search.
Rigid Thermoplastic Foams, Canadian Building Digest http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/pubs/cbd/cbd167_e.html	Properties of polystyrene and other rigid foam insulation boards.
Specific Heat, Emissivity, ... of Materials
Specific Heat of Materials, Engineering ToolBox http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com	Table of specific heats of common materials
Emissivity of many materials http://www.electro-optical.com	Emissivity of many materials (paints, metals, plastics, ...)
Permeability of Materials
Permeability of common Building Materials to Water Vapor University of Fairbanks Cooperative Extension www.uaf.edu/coop-ext	Water vapor permeability for quite a few materials, and how to calculate water transmission through these materials.
Roofing Materials
Laboratory Testing of the Reflectance Properties of Roofing Materials, Parker, McIlvaine, Barkaszi, and Anello Florida Solar Energy Center http://www2.fsec.ucf.edu ...	Paper gives lab measured reflectance and IR emissivity of many types of roofing.