Sun Louvres
Introduction to solar shading
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We all recognise the benefits of having natural daylight within buildings. People respond better when they can have a view to the outside and work better under controlled natural daylight conditions. Furthermore Architects naturally like to create buildings that evoke interest and admiration. Accordingly there are examples of buildings with large areas of glazing that can be seen nearly everywhere.
However with the drive towards reducing energy consumption, a key objective for most building designers is to maximise the use of natural light without the problems of glare or excessive solar heat gain.
Careful selection of the most appropriate solar shading system is necessary in order to achieve the necessary functional performance and to meet the aesthetic requirements of the building.
Colt offer systems with fixed, controllable, vertical, horizontal, aluminium and translucent fins, as well as many other types of systems.
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Introduction to Sun Louvres
We can all appreciate the benefits of working in an environment where the temperature is precisely regulated. For office buildings in the summer, the optimum setting is 24°C, with a narrow range of +/- 4°C.
In many of today's office developments this temperature band can often be exceeded, especially during the hotter months, due to the solar radiation through glazing. Temperatures as high as 35-40°C have been recorded. In order to effectively regulate the internal temperature, and better protect the environment through the design of low energy buildings, the use of natural ventilation and solar shading is becoming increasingly popular.
Colt offers the architect a wide range of innovative solar shading products to overcome the problems of solar glare and solar heat gains.
Solar Geometry
The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. The sun travels in an arc, reaching its highest altitude in the South (for the Northern hemisphere).
Orange Line - Solar Altitude for 21st December
Yellow Line - Solar Altitude for 21st September
Red Line - Solar Altitude for 21st June
An important requirement of the design process is to ensure the building is shaded from the sun for as many hours as possible throughout the whole day, during the course of the entire year, especially with the need to meet the Building Regulations Approved Document L2. However a balance must be achieved in order to ensure that the level of natural light entering the building is not unacceptably reduced.
South Facing Façades
For a predominately South facing façade, effective solar shading can be achieved using a fixed horizontal solar shading system such as the Colt Solar C Shading System.
During the day in both summer and spring/autumn, a fixed horizontal system projecting out from the window can be designed to shade the building during office hours.
In the winter such a device cannot stop direct rays of the sun penetrating the building since the sun is much lower. However the heat gain and solar glare is greatly reduced in winter and therefore this may not considered to be a major problem.
East or West Facing Façades
With a predominantly East or West facing façade, a fixed system will not perform well throughout the whole day as the altitude of the sun is much lower. Sunlight will pass directly under most horizontal shading systems as shown in the illustration below.
To overcome this problem, effective solar shading can be achieved using a movable solar shading system such as the Colt Solarfin Shading System.
Controllable fins, unlike fixed, can hang vertically in front of a window and still optimise solar shading and visibility thanks to specially written computer software which controls the louvres to follow the path of the sun.
Controllable solar shading systems enable the building to react to the changes in the weather and to the sun's position so as to optimise the flows of heat and light energy through the façade. This in turn may have a positive effect on reducing the heat load and glare, and enhancing the use of natural daylight, thereby reducing the operating costs of the building.
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