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To: Jack Hydrazine
Argon in windows is not functioning as a greenhouse gas. It helps (a little) by being dense, and it therefore reduces the amount of convection that carries heat from the inside pane to the outer pane

The key requirement for a GHG is that it absorbs infra-red (heat) radiation in the frequency region where a 'black-body' at earth-surface temperatures radiates. This blocks surface radiation and forces the IR heat radiation to 'outer-space' to occur from higher altitudes, where the atmosphere is colder, and the heat radiation is thus much weaker.

Clouds at night do the same thing, but clouds block the sun during the day whereas greenhouse gases do not. Argon, oxygen, and nitrogen do not absorb significantly in the IR region of interest (but ozone does, and is a GHG)

53 posted on 07/28/2011 2:54:51 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: expatpat

I’ve read a while back that the thermal conductivity for Ar is lower than CO2 which would make it a better insulator from a convection standpoint. Ar is only slightly more dense than CO2. If we want to go with the density of the gas reducing the amount of convection through a window I’m surprised the window manufacturers aren’t using Kr or Xe instead of Ar.

Please correct me if I am wrong what I have just said.


54 posted on 07/28/2011 5:08:53 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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