Where there is glazing, there is a need for shading

By Stuart Dantzic, managing director, Caribbean Blinds 

Ancient civilizations designed their architecture based on achieving thermal comfort through passive building design, to keep buildings cool in the summer and warm in the winter by capturing solar energy.

It was the Victorians who introduced awnings to shade elaborate glass shop frontages, functional in design, made of cloth and retractable.

We then saw the introduction of cheap air conditioning – but fast forward a few decades and this solution in no longer cheap and certainly not eco-friendly.

Modern homes are increasingly being built with large expanses of glass, including sliding / bi-folding doors and skylights and there are now high numbers of homes overheating as a result.

The government has had to look at options to prevent homes overheating and have done this by introducing Part O of the Building Regulations. Part O was introduced on 15 June 2022 to prevent

modern ‘glass box’ building designs from overheating, with high levels of wall insulation. The goal is to limit unwanted solar gain over the warmer seasons and provide occupants with adequate means of quickly removing excess heat from indoor environments.

A recent article cited that ‘the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) had become increasingly concerned about overheating in homes. CIBSE had contributed to various government steering groups and projects considering the issue over the past decade.

More recently, CIBSE were part of the Building Regulations Advisory Committee that advised government on the various ways in which overheating could be addressed in the Building Regulations.

The advice CIBSE gave was listened to, and now forms the basis of the new Part O Building Regulation.

The new regulation will change the way new homes are designed and built. Large expanses of glass will need to include exterior shading of some description to prevent overheating – air conditioning is not a solution!

This is great news for the external shading market but also for homeowners. External shading is the most effective solution to prevent overheating and while you could argue that it’s easy for me to sing its praises, external shading – including shutters, external blinds, overhangs and awnings – has actually been detailed in the approved overheating regulation document as an acceptable strategy for reducing overheating risk.

Installing external blinds or awnings keeps buildings cool by providing a dynamic protective layer to the outside of the glass, absorbing and deflecting up to 97% of solar radiation, in turn reducing interior room temperatures by up to 18^oc and cutting the energy consumption otherwise needed to cool down a hot room by over 80%.

They diffuse incoming light to prevent glare, blocking damaging UV rays to prevent fixtures and fittings from bleaching by the sun and also offer extra privacy – particularly in built-up areas – while adding a striking new dynamic to any façade.

Automatic outdoor blinds are the preferred option, positioning themselves based on the ambient conditions to ensure a thermally and visually comfortable indoor environment with minimum energy demand on any installed heating and cooling systems, reducing energy costs and CO2 emissions as a result.

To conclude, while the introduction of the new Part 0 regulation will prevent new homes being built that are susceptible to overheating, occupants currently living in those properties that overheat need to do something about their situation, other than installing air conditioning.

The solution is simple, approved and recommended and that is, install external blinds or awnings!