Importance of solar shading to passive solar building design.

Trying to get indoor spaces to be the right temperature is a constant struggle.  During cold parts of the year we use large amounts of energy for heating, but when warm weather arrives we suddenly want to cool down our buildings.

One way around this problem is passive solar design. This is a building principle that seeks to maximise heat gain at certain times of the day and the year, while reducing it at others. This can be done by utilising Two Point Seven Facades solar shading techniques. 

Sunlight warms up the surfaces which it illuminates, and this energy can be harnessed to provide space heating, a process called “solar gain”. The glass walls of the structure allow light to enter, warming up the interior.  They prevent heat from escaping both by stopping the warm air from leaving the structure and by trapping infrared radiation, which is blocked by the glass.

Solar gain is great in cold weather, but at warmer times of year it can cause rooms to overheat. Consequently solar shading is a vital component of passive solar design.

Blinds can be deployed to reduce the amount of light that enters the structure and so cut down on the heating that occurs.  However these reduce the amount of light the room gets as well as the heat. Fortunately Two Point Seven Facades have designed several elegant solutions to reduce solar gain, while keeping rooms well lit.

Because the path the sun takes across the sky is very well known, it is possible to position solar shading extremely accurately. Brise soleil can be seen above and across windows on many buildings.  These consist of a series of aluminium profiles (aluminium Aerofoil Timber Aerofoil Glass Fins Glass Fins PVA Pattern Interlayer), which block sunlight at specific times, providing lightweight shading for the interior. 

Two Point Seven Facades provide a bespoke design for each installation, utilising shading calculations to provide the optimum solution for your building.  Based on the aluminium section of your choice, we will detail the correct locations, pitch and angle to optimise your solar shading requirements.