OT Tomorrow's World 1989 house of the future in 2020

[ARW]

[Jeff Layman]

(Start is at

) There's some interesting stuff there, quite a lot of which has found it's way to the current day. But what happened to the electronically controlled window glass that the guy from Pilkington demonstrated? We now have very large LCD TVs screens, so why couldn't they be adapted for window use? Is it perhaps because the coating is not stable in the long term to the UV component of sunlight?

[Animal]

it's available but expensive & most people don't trust it.

[Colin Bignell]

Couldn't see that in the clip, but glass that can switch from clear to opaque at the touch of a button is available. It is used in commercial environments to make an office space visible or private. Not cheap though.

[farter]

It did arrive, its been in a few Grand Designs, but isnt cheap.

It can and is available.

Nope, its available now, but isnt cheap.

[Andy Burns]

Plus its natural state is opaque, so you have to pay (about 5W/m^2) to let the sunshine in ...

[jkn]

Yes, I remember walking round the offices of a company in Bracknall who had this, 15 years or so ago. Very fancy, but ... "too much money to waste...", thought I at the time. The company are no more, of course.

J^n

[alan_m]

Often shown on TV in high price apartments as a shower screen.

What happened to that ultra effective thin insulation?

[Theo]

Aerogel is available, and about 3x more insulating than rockwool (1.5x celotex). But it's not cheap and so only really used where space is critical and other solutions aren't suitable.

(like the phase-change glass, I'm not sure if this is an intrinsic manufacturing cost, or just because it's expensive because demand is low because it's expensive)

Theo

[Jeff Layman]

Drag the pointer back to 1:40 in the link.

[Jeff Layman]

I searched for it online and found that it called "Privacy" glass, which I suppose sums it up as it's only translucent, not really opaque. I guess that as a window glass substitute, it'd be of no use for those who really need "blackout" curtains or blinds to sleep.

[Andrew]

"We can do away with all those fiddly knobs and buttons"

Oeer missus, and in addition, what about Brian, he can't use touch screens ?.

"We can do away with power sockets and have energy pads built into the walls". Yeah, really.

Thankfully some things that got left behind in the 1980's were mullett hair-do's and brown decor and sartorial sense.

[Colin Bignell]

I didn't notice that the video started part way through. That is the stuff I was referring to.

[alan_m]

Possibly it only works over a certain temperature range more suited to internal spaces.

[Rod Speed]

That doesn't gel with what someone else claimed, that the default state is opaque.

Its here too, just stupidly priced so isn't used for insulating houses or fridges and freezers.

[farter]

He gets to use Siri.

Works fine with smartphones now.

[Rod Speed]

Yeah, I don't recall any of the ones on Grand Designs were ever on external windows.

That may just be because it isnt readily available as double or triple glazing tho.

Too lazy to google that.

[Colin Bignell]

When I went on a Rhine cruise, one wall of the shower in the cabin used that glass. I wasn't sure whether that was to allow the person showering to look out through the balcony doors, to watch the view, or for the person in the cabin to watch the person showering. I just left it opaque.

[Brian Gaff]

Give us a clue, is it really naff by today's standards? Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Is there not a fridge door made of that stuff, so it can be seen through when needed? I think its a silly idea as one supposes you have no door storage then.

I remember a lot of Tomorrows world stuff I've never seen. The stuff you can squirt into a mains drill and allows you to use it underwater, then there was the turning a window into a Sat dish by employing the fresnell principle to radio waves.

I'm waiting for my Microwave powered central heating system. Brian