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The 1st year outcome of the “environmental performance rating system of apartments by Metropolitan Tokyo (VEC translation)” which rates new large scale apartments that have the total floor area of more than 10,000 m2 has been made public. This system started since October 2005, and rates environmental friendliness of the apartments by the number of stars for each of the following items: heat insulating properties of the building, energy saving properties of the facilities, longevity of the building, and greenness. Full marks are three stars for each of these items. If full marks are achieved for all four of these items, the building gets a total of twelve stars. Only one apartment named “Shellze Kiba-Koen” (in Koto ward, Tokyo) achieved full marks and ranked the highest among 59 apartments that were examined this time by Metropolitan Tokyo (the environment bureau of Tokyo announced the outcome of 13 of these apartments). The windows of this apartment are made of“PVC sashes with Low-E double glazing”, which, combined with the exterior thermal insulation of the building framework, enables residents to have minimal effect from the outdoor temperature. This as a result minimizes condensation and has a high energy saving effect. In northern areas of Japan such as Hokkaido and Tohoku, PVC sashes have is already becoming the norm. Gradually, large scale apartments in metropolitan areas such as this case are starting to adopt PVC sashes. Due their prevention of condensation and energy saving effects which leads to curbing global warming, their use is expected to grow. |