Benefits of Replacing a Roof with Translucent Roof Panels

Is your building’s existing roof or skylight system failing due to decay or leakage? An alternative to replacing it with troublesome glass or maintaining an opaque roof is to retrofit your structure with translucent sandwich panels. Translucent panels provide a wide range of benefits to your commercial building, including adding an enhanced design element to your building while providing an energy-efficient and effective daylighting solution.

Translucent Sandwich Panels Let in the Light

There are many reasons to want to increase natural lighting throughout your commercial space: Research has shown it provides both mental and physical benefits to building occupants. In areas with longer periods of darkness, daylighting can boost moods and reduce seasonal depression or the winter blues. Natural daylight has also been proven to help boost morale and productivity in the workplace.

But proper daylighting requires the right materials. Kalwall’s translucent sandwich panels diffuse full-spectrum natural light deep into spaces. Unlike glass or polycarbonate materials, which may filter out broad spectrums of light, Kalwall’s light transmission mimics what you would experience outside while still filtering out harmful UV Rays, like UV-A and UV-B.

This includes the delivery of vital blue light during the day. Blue light acts as a short-term alertness stimulant and reinforces natural circadian rhythms. Blue light also affects metabolic and hormonal functions, ultimately helping to provide a calm, focused mindset, and can improve sleep. Even plants and animals can flourish under Kalwall, with plants being able to photosynthesize in this natural light.

Materials that directly transmit light rather than fully diffusing it also create visual glare that leads to eye strain against monitors and other equipment. Translucent sandwich panels are engineered to balance light and minimize hotspots throughout your space.

Improvements in Energy Efficiency

Translucent sandwich panels can aid in improving the energy efficiency of a space. In addition to reducing the need for artificial lighting sources, including lamps and built-in fixtures, translucent panels provide insulation customized to your building’s unique requirement. Each panel is constructed with a U-factor between 0.29–0.05 and a solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) as low as .04. Kalwall’s thermal break technology is also unmatched in the fenestration industry, preventing excessive thermal bridging. By matching the U-factor and SHGC to the construction’s needs, heating and cooling costs can be reduced as well as the load taken on by the HVAC system, requiring fewer costly maintenance visits and repairs.

Minimal Structural Support

A full roof system is comprised of several different levels, all of which experience different levels of wear and tear over its lifetime of twenty to twenty-five years. Translucent sandwich panels are lightweight and strong, requiring less structural support when used for roofing and allowing the system to last for a longer span of time. Because it requires less substructure to be built up and utilizes modular construction, installation is quicker and more cost effective. This saves time and money, with fewer trades needed on site.

Reduced Maintenance Costs

Translucent sandwich panel roofing systems like Kalwall reduce overall maintenance costs for your building. The panels themselves are self-cleaning, with normal rainfall being enough to remove sediment that has built up over time. If maintenance is required, the roof is man safe. Kalwall’s fiberglass reinforced polymer (FRP) face sheets, which make up the sandwich panel exterior, are non-porous to prevent damage from acids, alkalis and other common solvents that affect traditional roofing and shingles. While traditional roofing can sustain damage from water and wildlife over time, Kalwall translucent sandwich panels are termite and mildew resistant, allowing the structure to achieve a longer lifespan.

Translucent Sandwich Panel Roofing Systems

To learn more about the benefits of translucent roof panels and the effects they can have on your space, contact a Kalwall representative today. Our team will be able to walk you or your building manager through the technology used to engineer the panels, as well as the process of installation.