Passive Overheating Solutions
Overheating is an unintended consequence of over insulation. Working from home has highlighted overheating in apartments mostly from the Urban heat island effect created by air-con exhaust.
The increase In energy use for air-con in the 10 years of the last BRE report was 9TW, that is the projected output of Hinkley Point. Energy use in buildings is over 40% of the total and air-con use is the greatest threat to our supplies.
Before air-con shopkeepers protected their wares with external awnings. That traditional solution of stopping the heat before it gets to the glass is not rocket science.
Passive cooling with external blinds can reject over 95% of solar gain without using precious energy.
Over 20% of new builds overheat yet our regulations now require passive solutions and that is shading. Mitigating that with dynamic shading just makes sense but as the Climate Change Committee state we just do not do it.
In winter shading is also the insulation of the windows and can prevent up to 30% of heat losses. Unlike heat retaining glazing it can also be raised on sunny days to benefit from free solar energy.
For passive design we need large areas of glass to harvest it with external blinds as the facilitator to prevent summer overheating
An external venetian blinds is sustainable and can save as much as 57 times as much carbon through its lifecycle as that used to manufacture and install.
A true energy saving, sustainable and passive solution.
To get more information, check out our advice page here.