How To Prevent Heat Loss in Commercial Buildings with Dynamic Shading
One of the biggest issues with large commercial buildings, especially older ones, is heat loss. Heat loss is a measure of negative heat transfer through a building’s fabric from the inside to the outside. The colder it is outside, and the warmer it is inside, the greater the heat loss will be. This is especially true if the building is poorly thermally insulated.
Why is heat loss such an issue?
There are many reasons why heat loss should be a concern for property owners. These include:
- Increased energy costs caused by artificial heating and cooling systems
- Lack of control over internal temperatures
- Low morale in occupants caused by draughts, glare, overheating etc.
- Reduced property value due to poor insulation
Solving your heat loss issues will not only save you money immediately by reducing your energy costs, but long term it will increase property value. It’s also vital to ensure workplaces such as offices are comfortable and fit for purpose. Click here to find out how heat and glare-reduction can improve your WELL rating. The aim of the WELL Building Standard is to make people more productive, happier, and healthier in the workplace.
How to reduce heat loss using dynamic shading
The obvious solution to reduce heat loss caused by poor insulation is to replace the existing insulation or insulate any areas that aren’t already. However, this is not going to be a quick or cheap fix, especially for very large buildings. Plus, if you do go and replace all the insulation, who is to say the problem will be fixed? Heat loss doesn’t just happen due to poor insulation – windows account for approximately 1/3 of heat loss or gain in commercial buildings.
One of the main factors in this is air leakage through old or poorly fitted window frames. When your window is not sufficiently insulated, the internal temperatures in the office can’t be regulated. Replacing every window in a large commercial building with new, double glazed or thermal windows could end up being a costly endeavour.
A simpler, retrofit solution is to install fully framed blinds in the windows. A fully framed system like our KuroLok blind is installed snug into the window recess and provides a sealed frame acting rather like an additional layer of protection.
The KuroLok system also features zip-retention side channels, so even when your blind is down while the window is open on a hot day, the fabric will stay put.
Existing shading may also be contributing to your energy loss without even realising it. Roller blind fabrics in large commercial buildings are usually chosen based on two factors: cost and appearance. But performance often gets forgotten about. Choosing a cheap fabric to save costs might actually end up costing you more down the line. An experiment by the University of Salford found that a standard window covering can reduce heat loss by up to 14% but there are simple ways to increase this figure even more.
A blackout fabric with a thick, white backing, like our Meridian fabric, will work to not only insulate a room, but simply by having a white backing it can also reflect sunlight away from the room and prevent overheating.
If you want to go even further, a silver-backed fabric such as Spectrum 4060 acts like a mirror for sunlight and can reflect up to 59.7% of solar glare and up to 97.5% of UV light (it’s also made from recycled materials with cradle to cradle certification).
These small changes to the fabric on your roller blinds can have a huge impact on not only your heating and lighting costs but also on your occupants. An office that is too hot, too cold, too bright or too dark can lead to health issues, low morale and an uncomfortable working environment. Choosing an energy-efficient fabric is especially important in new, modern buildings with large expanses of glazing as a lot of sunlight and subsequent heat can be lost or gained through very large windows.
For more information on keeping modern buildings cool, click here.
The biggest change you can make to your shading to improve your energy efficiency is installing an automated, dynamic shading solution.
In a large office building, staff will close the blinds when the glare is too much to cope with, but they will rarely open them again when the glare reduces. In fact, on average, office blinds are only moved twice a week! And only 12% of people operate their blinds once a day. Typically blinds will remain static and the HVAC and artificial lighting will be forced to work longer and harder.
By controlling your blinds using smart technology, you are saving time, money, reducing the environmental impact of artificial lighting and cooling, and creating a more comfortable living or working environment.
Sunlight sensors can detect when there is too much light coming in through the window that could raise internal temperatures or cause problems with glare. Using a temperature sensor in conjunction with the sunlight sensor provides an extra data source to ensure accurate readings.
Still not sure how window treatments will improve energy efficiency? Chat to an expert!
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We can find the perfect solution for every sector, from Hotels to Offices to High-End Residential.