KITCHENER — Consider this: about one-quarter of the money you are sinking into household energy costs
is literally going out the window.
About half of a home’s energy costs go toward heating, ventilation and air conditioning, says Kitchener’s
Nicholas Komarnycky, co-founder of 3E Nano Inc. And about half of that is lost due to inefficient windows
that let in too much heat in the summer and let too much escape in the winter.
But the minds behind 3E Nano say they can get that money back, using a low-cost energy-control coating
they’ve developed for glass and other transparent media.
Although an initial production line is still at least a couple of years away, 3E Nano has produced samples at
its University of Toronto-based lab, and the company is working with an equipment manufacturer as it looks
to scale up, Komarnycky says.
The company got a boost recently with the announcement of a $2.725-million investment from the federal
government through Sustainable Development Technology Canada.
“It’s a real challenge going through that process,” Komarnycky says, adding the government really does its
homework. “For us to pass through the whole process, it says a lot about the technology and the capabilities
of this company.”
The 3E Nano coating is inexpensive, in that it doesn’t use the exotic materials found in many competing
products. The coating is predominately carbon-based, using readily available materials, Komarnycky says.
The transparent coating allows the full visible spectrum to pass through, while blocking any unwanted heat
transfer.

“We reflect all the heat signature of that solar energy that’s coming through that window,” Komarnycky
says. While competitive coatings are mostly absorptive, “our coating behaves like a transparent insulated
wall.”
That keeps heat outside in the summer, and inside in the winter. Energy consumption and costs go down,
and greenhouse gas emissions fall.
“Not only will this investment in green-tech innovation create jobs, but it will also help meet our Paris
Accord targets for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as one part of the global effort to mitigate climate
change and global warming,” Kitchener South-Hespeler MP Marwan Tabbara said in a news release
announcing the federal funding.
The 3E Nano coating also features an embedded transparent metal layer that can be activated electrically to
generate heat. On a car windshield, the coating could effectively defrost and de-ice the surface in seconds.
In highrise windows, slight heat could be applied to limit condensation.
The coating can also be fine-tuned to allow specific wavelengths through — that could work well in a
greenhouse setting where the coating could be tailored for specific plants or climates, considerably
extending the growing season.
The 3E Nano coating is designed to be applied in a variety of ways — directly onto glass or within a
windshield, for example, or onto a polymer film that could then be laminated onto glass. This means it could
be applied at the time of manufacturing or afterward.
The technology has its origins in the solar energy sector, but 3E Nano’s founders realized the greatest
advantages — and potential commercial success — lay in applications like buildings and vehicles.
Founded in 2015, 3E Nano already exceeded $1 million in funding prior to the federal announcement. The
company consists of four co-founders, working with a host of researchers at the university. Komarnycky
expects the company will have about 35 employees when the first production line launches in late 2019 or
early 2020.
Although a location hasn’t been finalized, Komarnycky says it will be somewhere in the Waterloo Regionto-
Toronto corridor.
“We’re basically going to change the way coatings are made,” Komarnycky says. “It’s definitely a gamechanger
for Canada.”