solar blinds

[EverHopefull]

Just seen a pop up ad for these. 

Could they be the answer to overheating and pv generation in one? 

The idea sounds interesting even if the product looks a tad agricultural. 

[Jeremy Harris]

A couple of people here have external solar blinds that seem to work very well. 

 

I regret not being able to install them, but we didn't have enough space above the windows to hide them when up, and the planners (well, conservation officer) wasn't happy with anything external, like shutters or a projecting external blind box.

[EverHopefull]

The blinds look like a good idea if designed in and ultimately hidden in a recess in the cladding. Solar panels are already in the equation but I may get costings to add these.

We are going to install an air con unit as advised already by the architect due to the amount of glazed East facing wall we will have. (20m2)

Probably a ceiling mounted unit as it's open plan 80m2. Calculated at about 38000BTU for cooling!

[Jeremy Harris]

Far better to find a way to reduce the heat getting in than to spend a lot of money through the life of the house trying to pump it out, IMHO. 

 

We only have around 4m² of glazing facing East and about 10m² facing South and we had massive overheating problems initially.  I covered much of the East and South facing glass with solar reflective film, plus we have a big overhang over the large glazed gable anyway, but we still have too much heat getting into the house and have to rely very much on pumping that heat out with cooling systems.

[Bitpipe]

13 hours ago, JSHarris said:

A couple of people here have external solar blinds that seem to work very well. 

 

I regret not being able to install them, but we didn't have enough space above the windows to hide them when up, and the planners (well, conservation officer) wasn't happy with anything external, like shutters or a projecting external blind box.

 

We have one ground floor south facing window in the kitchen that does not have an integrated external shutter - all the east facing windows (street side) do, plus all velux windows.

 

Makes a huge difference in solar gain.

 

Given the south window faces next door's gable end, I thought it would be fine but got caught out by spring and winter sun when it is low in the sky. 

 

Been kicking myself on that since the build started..

 

Now the render is likely to need replaced, I'm going to take the opportunity to order a shutter for and get it retrofitted in the frame ahead of that work.

 

We also get a lot of evening sun through the west facing sliders (two four metre doors), but a cheap voile from Ikea on a tensioned wire hanger (£10) seems to solve most of the issues as the solar gain is less intense at that time of day.