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Red Deer energy-efficiency company tackles first European project in Germany

Window Innovations will work on Berlin heritage building from 1898
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Stefan Forschle, co-owner of Window Innovations. (Contributed photo).

A small Red Deer company is heading to Germany to undertake a big energy efficiency project on one of Berlin’s oldest surviving buildings.

Improving the energy retention of the 121-year-old Hochzeitshaus will be the first European job for Red Deer’s Window Innovations.

Stefan Forschle, who co-owns the business with Brian Urlacher, said “It’s definitely something unique. Doing something like this, for a small Red Deer company, is very exciting.”

Next week, Window Innovations workers will start rolling a patented nanotechnology product onto the large, first-floor windows of this gabled historic building.

It’s named Bridal House because a jewelry business operated at street level for many decades and a wedding shop was opened there in 2007, said Forschle.

He added the Hochzeitshaus is a rarity, being among the few Berlin heritage structures not wrecked by the Allied bombings of the Second World War.

Since the 1898 building must conform to German laws that preserve the architectural aesthetics, its inefficient windows can’t be changed out for triple-pane glass — or anything else that would alter its apearance.

Forschle said this opens the way for Window Innovations to step in with a clear liquid coating that improves window efficiency by 75 per cent without impacting visibility like window films would.

The product insulates glass with tiny particles, turning the efficiency of double-pane windows into “as good or better as triple pane,” added Forschle.

Since the four-employee company was formed last year, Window Innovations has held the regional rights to this nanotechnology product, which was developed in Japan some 20 years ago.

Forschle said his firm has already completed many residential and commercial local jobs, including for the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and ABC Country Restaurant in Red Deer.

The Berlin project came about because Forschle’s brother works for the architectural firm that owns the heritage building. Although Germany is at the forefront of energy efficiency products, this product is still unknown there, said Forschle, a German native who’s lived in Central Alberta for 11 years.

When his brother suggested Window Innovations to the building’s owners, they agreed to test the company’s product out on the ground-level windows.

Forschle believes results will be felt quickly, and anticipates getting the contract for all six floors. He hopes the Hochzeitshaus project will open European markets for his Red Deer company.



lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com

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17190886_web1_Hochzeitshaus-copy
(Contributed photo).