Ekodome® Geodesic
Dome Covers
Pre-cut panels in various materials and various thicknesses for Ekodome® frames are now available to order from our website. Which materials are we offering, what colors and which thicknesses? Here below you can find all the details.
Pre-Cut Cover Panels for Ekodome® Frames
POLYCARBONATES
GLASS
HPL COMPACT LAMINATE
HPL SIP
Polycarbonates
Polycarbonates are strong, stiff, hard, tough, transparent engineering thermoplastics that are known for being moldable, durable and lightweight. Polycarbonate possesses impact resistance 250 times greater than that of glass while also exhibiting exceptional tensile strength. This makes polycarbonate one of the most widely used engineering thermoplastics.
1) Solid PC (8mm / 10mm):
Polycarbonate is a tough, transparent plastic material with outstanding strength, stiffness, and impact resistance. Its UV resistance allows it to be used in outdoor applications including greenhouses, skylights, and nurseries. Solid polycarbonate sheets have enough thickness for a durable and practically unbreakable roofing system. It is highly impact resistant and provides a higher insulating property than glass while also being significantly more durable. This attribute makes them ideal for emergency shelters. Also, having the glass transparency and being UV protected on both faces makes them the perfect cover for skylights and panoramic bay windows for your dwell dome. With proper care, polycarbonate can last about 10 years, a fraction of how long glass lasts.
2) Twinwall PC (8mm / 10mm):
A twinwall polycarbonate panel is a tough, durable, and lightweight plastic building material. It is commonly used as cladding, roofing panels, and translucent walls in structures like greenhouses. It provides great strength, thermal properties, and some UV protection for a moderate expense.Polycarbonate twinwall is designed for an endless range of glazing and roofing applications, as well as applications requiring extreme impact resistance, including storm panels, skylights, room dividers, roof panels, greenhouse panels and patio/pergola roofing.
Advantages:
- Lightweight: Just 1/8 the weight of glass and much lighter than solid panels
- Highly Flexible: Twinwall plastic panels can be cold formed to many bending radii and can be fabricated on site to precise dimensions.
- Virtually Unbreakable: Able to stand extreme abuse, its impact strength is 200 times greater than glass and 10 times greater than acrylic. Superior structural durability, and impact resistance.
- Saves Energy: The Twinwall construction gives excellent thermal insulating values while blocking UV transmission and weather. Twinwall plastic sheeting has excellent insulation properties.
- Home Improvement: For easy do-it-yourself projects like window replacements, shower enclosures, greenhouses, partitions, light covers, patio covers, carports, windbreaks and even chicken coops. Easy to handle and install with a high fire performance rating.
- Horticultural: For greenhouse coverings where good thermal insulation is necessary together with high light transmission.
- Architectural Glazing: Can be cold-formed, offering architects design freedom on site.
- Twinwall panels are self-supporting and do not require extensive structural support.
GLASS PANELS
1) Double Pane Tempered Glass: (28mm)
A double pane glass is an insulated glass that contains multiple glass panes, probably 2 or 3, packed together with tight air space between the panels, dispenses insulating traits. In general, it controls temperature when inserted at sloped glazings, commercial curtain walls, skylights, conference rooms, studios, insulated glass roofs, and indoors or insulated windows.
There are several benefits associated with dual pane windows. The most well-known is energy savings as they are the most common type of energy residential insulated windows on the market today. Originally intended to protect homes from extreme weather conditions, other benefits have been convincing people to install them with increasing frequency.
Dual pane windows keep the heat out during the hot months and cold out during the cold months, cutting down energy use. Additionally dual pane windows help with noise reduction and can update the appearance of a house while also increasing resale value.
2) Laminated Glass (8mm/10mm):
The laminated glass features a multi-pane construction that makes it highly impact resistant. A layer of adhesive resin is responsible for holding the glass panes together. Laminated or shatterproof glass has an exceptionally high strength value. It is mostly used in applications where a high level of security is required. It is widely used in building facades, architectural designs, overhead glazing, and automobile windshields. It also finds utility in high-profile applications.
Benefits of Laminated Glass
The shatterproof safety glass offers a plethora of benefits. Some of the main advantages are as follows:
– Enhanced Safety
Laminated glass is referred to as safety glass because it doesn’t shatter into harmful shards of glass even on the hardest of impacts. It stays intact thus avoiding any chances of injuries.
– Better Security
It is almost impossible to break laminated safety glass. So it is highly effective against burglary, theft, and forced break-ins.
– Energy Efficiency
Laminated windows with a double layer of glass and a resinous interlayer act as an energy-efficient option.
– Sound Insulation
Its multi-layer structure is also effective against noise pollution.
– UV Protection
It serves as a barrier against the harmful radiations of the sun.
Which is better tempered or laminated glass?
Laminated glass is stronger than tempered glass. It also offers soundproofing and UV protection. However, both laminated and tempered glass is highly transparent, easy to clean and maintain. Laminated glass is popular for security applications while tempered glass is widely used in daily life applications.
Is laminated glass expensive?
Laminated safety glass is manufactured through an elaborate process and features more glass content. So it costs more than tempered glass.
Does laminated glass insulate?
The resinous interlayer in laminated safety glass also serves as a layer of insulation. It prevents the outside heat and cold from affecting the interior temperature. So along with security, shatterproof safety glass also offers great thermal insulation.
4) Reflective Glass (9mm):
Reflective glass is clear or tinted glass that has a very thin layer of metallic coating on the surface to allow it to reflect heat. The thicker the glass is, the less light will pass through the window. The reflective coating reduces heat gain and glare from the outside while allowing visible light to enter.
This type of glass is used in environmentally friendly construction with the goal of reducing heat gain and loss, making structures much cheaper to heat and cool over the course of the year. Characteristics of reflective glass include:
Appearance: Reflective glass gives a building a mirror-like appearance. The coatings are available in silver, copper, gold and earth tone. They can be combined with tinted glass to give a building a beautiful exterior.
Visibility: Reflective glass permits you to see through the glass on one side, but not the other
Energy savings: Because it reflects and absorbs the sun’s rays, reflective glass reduces the amount of solar radiation that enters the building. This can save money in heating and air-conditioning costs.
Comfort: Reflective glass reduces variations in the interior temperature of a building.
A tinted reflective glass allows for optimal light filtration and color neutrality, so it can be coordinated with your dome frame. The special metallic coating applied to reflective glass allows you and your guests take advantage of spectacular views, but prevents those outside the dome from seeing in. Reflective glass lets optimal light into your space, but also reduces glare from the sun, which eliminates the need for blinds, curtains and other window coverings. And when combined with solar-controlling low-e coating, this glass can reflect incoming radiant heat energy to keep your HVAC costs low.
There’s nothing more impactful in a skyline than a beautiful glass building. The appearance of the reflective glass on your dome’s exterior will change as the sky changes, highlighting spectacular sunrises and fiery sunsets.
5) Double Pane Solar Low-E Tempered Glass:
What Is Low-E Glass?
From the beginning: the “E” is for emissivity. When heat or light energy is absorbed by a surface, such as glass, it’s either reflected off the surface, or radiated through the surface. A material’s ability to radiate energy is known as emissivity. What does that have to do with your windows? If you’ve ever been in a greenhouse, you probably already know the answer to that question.
Radiating energy is one of the leading causes of heat transfer in window glass. emissivity (or low-e) windows radiate less energy, and therefore transmit less heat, which gives them greatly enhanced insulating properties. When heat energy—either from the sun or from your HVAC—strikes a low-e window pane, it is reflected back into the space it came from instead of being transferred through the window.
How Low-E Glass Works
The secret to the remarkable insulating qualities of low-e windows is the thin metallic coating on the surface of the glass. Low-e windows often appear tinted, but low-e glass is not the same as tinted glass. Whereas tinted glass is made by adding alloying materials into the glass itself, low-e glass has a microscopically thin layer—often multiple layers—of various metallic particles on the surface. These layers turn the glass into something like a filter, or a sieve.
You see, different types of energy have different wavelengths. Infrared, for example, has a long wavelength, while the visible light spectrum has a relatively short wavelength. Different metals will “filter out” different wavelengths, so by adding thin layers of various metals onto the surface of the glass, it’s possible to choose what types of energy get through.
If you want to filter out long wavelengths (infrared, i.e. heat) while allowing shorter wavelengths (light) to pass right through, low-e glass can do that. Most low-e glass also limits the amount of ultraviolet radiation that is allowed to pass through, which is beneficial both for the health of those who live in the home, as well as for the longevity of your furnishings.
HPL Compact Laminate (8mm/10mm)
What is an HPL panel?
HPL (High-Pressure Laminate) panels are made of Kraft paper impregnated with phenolic resins and subjected to heat and pressure. A decorative layer with synthetic polymer allows the sheets to have numerous color and texture options, providing extremely high strength and durability.
Decorative layer textures can be: Solid Colors, Natural Stone, Metal, Wood
What is Exterior grade compact laminate?
Exterior compact panels are produced with the HPL production technique. UV+ compact panels, which stand out with their resistance to UV rays and their ability to repel bacteria and dirt, are subjected to a special process to strengthen the surface layer and are preferred over alternative products with their various size and color alternatives in exterior applications where climate conditions are suitable.
EN Classification: EDS, EDF, EGS – EN 438 – 6
HPL Compact Laminate Sandwich Insulated Panel (SIP) / 96mm
You already learned from above text, what HPL Compact Laminate is. Our insulated panels are fabricated with 2 one sided HPL sheets, adhered together with PIR (polyisocyanurate) foam board.
PIR (polyisocyanurate), typically cut into boards, can be used in insulated metal panels, wall cavities, and as insulated plasterboard. PIR has such a high thermal performance, it requires only half the thickness of other mineral-based insulation products. With an Ekodome HPL SIP made with a PIR foam core, expect R-values ranging from 5-7.2 per inch. R-value measures a material’s thermal resistance to heat flow. The higher the R-value, the greater the thermal resistance.
PIR, like PUR, is known for its use as a low-moisture barrier. The most notable differentiating factor for PIR is its flame and smoke resistance. PIR slows the spread of flames and reduces the smoke emitted from the fire when compared to PUR products.
Do you prefer to get your Ekodome® as frame only and have the covers fabricated on your own?
That's always an option:
- How to choose the material
Your options depend heavily on your building purpose, your geographic location, the level of protection you need, and for sure, your budget. For temporary structures, architectural fabrics such as PE, PVC, or even Canvas may be a good fit, but if you aim to build permanent structures, you’d possibly be prioritizing the benefits and opt for rigid alternatives.
There are many options in the market for covering your geodome. It can either be heat-insulating and protective, transparent or UV light-protecting, sheet, roll, spray, or foam. Or you can combine various materials to increase the functionality, efficiency, and as a result, your overall geodesic dome experience. If you need help choosing the most appropriate dome cover for your Ekodome frame, you can always email us.
- Dimensions of the panels for Ekodome® Kits
The panel sizes will be provided to help you calculate estimated cladding costs for your geodesic dome frame. It is strongly advised not to cut your panels before downloading the templates regarding your purchase.