Business Ideas in Romania

Beat the heat……inexpensive exterior bamboo shading devices

• Posted by John on August 3rd, 2007 filed in Homes and housing

Business idea: provide and install inexpensive and modern exterior bamboo shading devices.

One of the ways of reducing heat in apartments (especially apartments facing east, west, or south) is by eliminating the direct sunlight (rays of the sun) on glass. In other words, by shading the glass. Double thermopane windows typically have an R-value (thermal resistance factor) of about 2. Compared to an insulated wall R-value (for moderate climates) of about R-11 or R-15, windows have very little thermal resistance and allow the rays of the sun to cause Solar Heat Gain.

In other words, if you want to reduce the heat build-up in your south-facing apartment by about 20%, then one place to start is by shading the glass.

The article here on cooling has a good description of the problem.

Unfortunately, for many block-of flats, (note: 3/4 of the sides face east, west, or south), the windows are mounted close to the exterior surface, and therefore have very little shading on the glass. In many cases, south facing windows receive sun almost all day long. For elderly owners, this can make the apartments dangerously hot during the summer. The walls of course also receive sun all day long, however, for the purposes of this article, we’re focusing here on the windows, which individual homeowners can do something about.

Note: blinds and curtains on the interior do not shade the glass on the outside.

As is seen on many rural or traditional buildings, louvered shutters (obloane) are used to shade the windows. Such devices allow daylight and air flow for ventilation and cooling, but shade the windows from the direct sunlight. In temperate and humid environments, a little ventilation and shading can make the difference between a stifling apartment and a comfortable apartment. It may not be ice-cold, but it wont be deathly hot.

However one problem with typical wood, metal, or plastic shutters for block-of-flats is that they tend to be expensive, particularly for the larger-sized windows of modernistic apartment blocks. Most louvered shutters tend to be relatively complicated fabrications made with fine finishes and hardware. In addition, the alternative vertical-rolling “shutters” (read: industrial security doors) are also expensive and not particularly attractive for residential use.

Shutters like this can be expensive, but as you can see provide very good ventilation and also good shading.

 

Bamboo shades are readily available for interior use, but bamboo is weather-resistant and can also be used for exterior shading applications. Exterior bamboo shades are available in various forms and textures allowing for a range of openness or distance between bamboo slats or rods. (Also, bamboo is a natural, renewable material).

Also, because bamboo grows in a variety of long lengths, bamboo shades can be produced in a variety of widths, ranging up to approximately 3-4 meters. (suitable for wide block-of-flats windows).

This building in San Francisco utilized a similar screened shading technique over the entire wall of the building where there were few operable windows, to help shade the whole building. This idea is relevant for many block of flats buildings in Bucharest with large expanses of walls exposed to the south or west sun, however, would involve participation by the building association, but would result in overall energy reduction due to cooling and cooler exterior walls during summer.