Category: Construction

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Glass Louvres keep you Warm in the Winter, cool in the Summer

As with so many such developments, brise soleil and other sorts of natural climate control have been around a while but are now becoming increasingly popular due to cost and environmental reasons. A ‘sun breaker’, as the concept translates, can be a very simple structure (little more than a judiciously-placed wall), or it can be very complex, as with the extensive and mechanical wing-like structures in use. Other variants are glass louvres and several forms of external louvres.

The general idea in all cases is to avoid using unnecessary power to control the temperature in a building by making more effective use of natural resources. During the course of a day, and through the changing seasons, any aspect of a building will receive greater or smaller proportions of sunlight. The trick is to maximise the ‘passive’ heating provided by the sun in the winter, whilst making sure that in the summer the level of sunlight is cut down and ventilation increased, to keep the building cool. Obviously, getting the balance wrong could result in freezing or stifling temperatures.

Whilst some forms of external louvre are extremely complex, other types are extremely simple. Brise soleils can be little more than a wall, placed in such a location as to reduce the sun at certain points of the day and year. Louvres are typically positioned to allow the building to receive low-angle sun – at the beginning and end of the day, or during the winter, when the sun never rises very high in the sky. Higher-angle sun, at hotter points of the day and year, is stopped.

What this means is that the temperature of a building can be controlled far more efficiently, reducing the need for extra energy on heating or air-conditioning systems. It also makes for a more comfortable environment, because the air has not been heated or processed to the same extent – something that can leave it dry and recycled. This means employees are more comfortable, happier – and therefore more productive.

There are many examples of brise soleil and external louvres, which can be retrofitted to buildings. The simplest glass louvres are merely slats which open and close depending on the outside conditions. However, depending on your needs and budget, there are some really imaginative examples around, which add to the character of the building and are part of its architectural appeal, as well as any functional benefits.

Visit http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/ for further information.

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External louvres to fit all shapes and sizes of building

Anyone who has worked in an ill-ventilated building in hot weather or in the midst of radiators running on overdrive will know how agonising such an experience of heat can be. Headaches become commonplace, backs and foreheads drip with sweat and levels of productivity run at all-time lows. Working in cold buildings can be equally uncomfortable of course: fingers can be heard cracking at their keyboards and many cups of tea or coffee must be supplied simply to keep the office workers functioning. The latter nippy conditions are sometimes not even the fault of low quality insulation or an inefficient heating system; quite conversely, the chill factor in the workplace often results from costly air-conditioning systems going into overdrive and leaving employees feeling thirsty and irritable. Happily, both overheating and underheating can be avoided quite easily with the latest innovations in brise soleil, glass louvres and external louvres.

Indeed, the answers to the above problems are not so tricky to find. Among glass louvres, external louvres and brise soleil, the latter are preventative innovations, for example, that stop the cause of overheating at its source: using a special cut of glass that has all the markings of an object of high design, the brise soleil is effectively an advanced reworking of the parasol or awning that helps prevent glare by stopping direct sunshine from entering a given building. An additional bonus that compliments the brise is its ability to make a building more private, thus conjuring an air of mystery around an enterprise at the same time as allowing employees to concentrate.

Glass louvres and external louvres are perhaps even more warranting of praise than the brise soleil, however, for they comply with and even exceed the kind of environmental policies put forward by green parties globally. Altogether then, the above developments in building enhancement technology will allow company bosses to conduct their businesses more responsibly. Directors who opt for heat-controlling investments will be recognised as those who make their employees, as well as the consciences of their clients, an absolute priority. Finally, the fact remains that buying into these structural additions will actually modernize the aspect of any given office block or shop; we have only to think of the Eden project in Cornwall or Paris’s Louvre itself to realise that a business buying into shading and heating devices will be following in the footsteps of architectural success.

Please visit http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/

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