If you work in a modern building then you probably have wide, expansive windows that give the room an airy, open feel and allow in plenty of sunlight. This has a number of advantages. For starters, you reduce lighting bills – and sunlight is far better than electric lights. It’s brighter, and the mixture of wavelengths is (by definition) more ‘natural’, meaning that staff generally feel better in the sun than under artificial lights. It also decreases heating bills. The problem comes when it’s summer, and the room can overheat. Then, you have a different issue, since you have to pay money you saved on heating on new air conditioning. Another solution is to retrofit a brise soleil, or glass louvres. External louvres can be an effective way of having the best of both worlds – allowing the sun to light your premises in the winter, but not overheating them in the summer.
There are a number of variants on the idea, and the particular version will depend on your circumstances – your climate, for starters, but also where your building is positioned and which way it faces. Some louvres are movable, and can be controlled from minute-to-minute to adapt to conditions on the day. Others are fixed, though these can still be highly effective. One of the most simple but helpful kinds is a ‘shelf’ which admits low-angle winter sun, or light at the start of the day when the sun is still low in the sky. In the summer, or the middle of the day, when the sun tends to be higher, the shelf blocks its light from the windows.
The brise soleil – French for ‘sun breaker’ – is a permanent sun barrier that can take a variety of forms. Sometimes it is no more than a horizontal surface projecting from the side of the building. On other occasions they are more complex, perhaps being slatted to admit a proportion of the sun, or only sun at certain times of day or year. These, along with glass louvres (which can be used in conjunction with a sun breaker), are helpful solutions to managing sunlight, which can result in large savings for your business. If this is something that your office finds an issue, then external louvres might be something to look into.
Please visit http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.
http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/
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