Have you ever noticed that it’s getting warmer? Maybe you will find this interesting or have a story to share.
The linked tool needs a full screen, I can’t use it on my phone, so I can’t give it a personal recommendation.
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My home overheats in the summer. In previous years I had set up a balcony parasol (a half parasol) to shade the kitchen window. The kitchen, not being permanently occupied, doesn’t seem a good candidate for shading but food preparation areas should not be too warm. The parasol worked well, so I looked for something more permanent.
I admired the bris soleil on various Passivhaus buildings and looked into something for us. I wanted to avoid thermal bridging and came up with the idea of a narrow pergola installed along but not touching the back wall. The pergola then needed a roof to provide the shade, so I fitted solar panels. Now I have a kitchen and downstairs wet room that are shaded from the hot summer sun but with a high and narrow enough shade to allow the low angled winter sun to provide some solar gain. I also have an extra 860Wp of extra solar energy (with DNO approval).
If that was the only PV I had I wouldn’t have needed permission.
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I have a south facing kitchen and have used perfect fit (internal blinds) and foliage which have proved effective to manage heat gain and glare control for computer screen work.
External blinds would be more effective - but require more care & maintenance.
I wonder whether these inexpensive bamboo blinds might be a solution for some, giving dappled shade, as an interim, external shading solution. But the pergola idea sounds like an excellent way of avoiding the thermal bridges I had imagined might be an issue if we went down an eventual PV-panel-as-south-shading route . [Bamboo external blinds](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Outdoor-Waterproof-Shutters-Kitchen-Install/dp/B0D1KF379Z?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A2Y2AQMYHARWKF)
Those look like a good idea. In fact I’m looking for something for the upstairs windows, and those could do the job. Attached to soffits there shouldn’t be a thermal bridging issue.
I have had an MVHR for many years. Those currently available in Europe bypass the heat exchanger above a certain temperature, so in the summer they are more accurately just MV.
What they don’t do is have a higher set point where the heat exchanger cuts in again to save the coolth of conditioned air, not that I have an air conditioner (yet).
Recently I have been practicing varying the rate of MVHR flow to preserve a tolerable internal air temperature. There are times when it is obvious that I need to use the boost function to purge ventilate and others when I clearly need to reduce flow. It shouldn’t actually be shut down completely as the house has inadequate ventilation without it (I hope!)
But the cusps can be tricky.
Footnote: I am in the relatively warm south.
The guide looks good.
I’m moving into a house with an east-west aspect: the front faces east and has square bays which don’t lend themselves to curtains, so venetian blinds seem most practical to deal with privacy and summer shading.
The west-facing rear is trickier. I want all the sun that I can get in the winter but need to be able to cut it out in the summer, including low-angle evening sun. Blinds or curtains should adequately mitigate the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom but for French doors into the garden I can’t think of a suitable fixed shading device and it may have to be a retractable awning with a pretty long throw.
@Paul_Hadfield’s bamboo blinds seem the ideal solution for you, particularly as the windows and doors in question are accessible on the ground floor. I notice that the maximum drop for the blinds to be retractable is 2m, if your doors are taller you will either need to leave the bottoms exposed or fit the blinds below the tops of them.
A plan of the rear windows and doors with any flower beds would be useful for a more detailed answer.
On further reflection however, they look as if they would be liable to thrash themselves to pieces in the wind, so perhaps some sort of folding, almost-vertical retaining battens, one on either side, would need to be arranged, if they were liable to be left unattended when wind was anticipated. So then on upstairs, outward-opening windows the sequence on hot, sunny, windy days might have to be 1. Open windows and slot battens into place. 2. Pull windows nearly closed but open slightly, enough to give access to the cords of the blinds. 3. Release cords to unroll blinds. With my single-glazed, softwood, casement windows, I can just about imagine how in step 1 I could reach through a partially open window to slot a batten into place, I think, if metal ‘slots’ or rectangular ‘cups’ were in place. But I haven’t quite got my head around how the cord shown on the pictures rolls them up and lets them down, and whether that will be feasible on upstairs windows. A trial purchase is needed, I suspect.
With outward opening windows I was thinking that they need to be opened and closed from outside, hence my comment to @Gabriel_Hyde,
Attachment is by simple hook and loop, so easily brought in when wind is forecast.
If I am correct then upstairs needs an extension cord fixed to the draw cord or fitting to the furthest edge of the soffit to facilitate access through an open window. A wider blind would also be required to provide shade as the angle of the sun changed. Upstairs of course is not so easily brought in in anticipation of adverse weather.
Long windows as some houses have in the stairwell are definitely not compatible.
Marketing puff alert: I notice that they are in fact not bamboo at all, but reed. I have asked the supplier, Jianguo’s Cabin, where they come from, via Amazon, and they say China.
The main issue for the French doors opening is that one would want to be shaded from low summer sun but still able to see (and walk) into the garden. And not to be shaded from winter sun. With those constraints, a retractable awning seems like the right option.
I’ll have a think about whether I could come up with some kind of gazebo arrangement in which thinnish timber blades could maybe be rotated seasonally, to admit sun in winter and exclude it in the summer…
@lloydham what is your experience of your perfect fit blinds? Who supplied them and did you fit or did they?
We need blinds for a large south facing conservatory. Not sure there is room for an external blind as we do have to clean out guttering by standing on the conservatory. The conservatory firm says anything drilled into the frame invalidates the warranties
We got ours from blinds-2-go and there is no drilling. There is a thin slider that fits between the glass and rubber seal of the double glazing. It can be a bit uncomfortable on the thumb / hands but doable if not in a rush. The blind is on a corded slider and concertinaed - so can be adjusted as required. This is great for working on a computer screen. This is the first summer season with the blind in place and so far it is performing well. We will add another set upstairs.
Thanks for replying. Do you get any feeling for how much they cut down on overheating? Am I right that they slightly reduce the area of glass, or do they fit outside the glass and onto the surround? Our conservatory is aluminium not uPVC, but I guess there would be no difference for installation.
Are yours pleated or honeycomb? I have heard that honeycomb blinds are better for heat reduction.
Looking at the photos, I can’t see the cords - do they hang down somewhere or what? We are looking for ones for the roof of a conservatory so having cords hanging down wouldn’t be great. Did you put a toggle to wind the cords round somewhere for each cord? Or how are they operated?
There are battery operated blinds linked to systems such as Ikea home - but we’ve resisted hubs for security etc.
Hi, it is possible for the temperature to rise up to~26-28℃ but we have not been past ~23℃ so far this year. We can reduce glare an use this area whenever we wish for video conferencing. There is a marginal loss of viewing glass but not an issue given the expanse of glass. We have pleated blinds that fold away when not in use to be virtually unobtrusive. You may be able to get a honeycomb version that blocks out more light etc.
The cords hang within the frame and the blinds can be positioned anywhere along the length. The cords can be seen to the edge of the frame but it is not an issue for us. The blinds slide along the cord.
The battery operated system you referenced looks good for a window but I am not sure how wide the largest span would be for a door . I attach further pictures.
So you physically pull them down or push them up, I guess using the cord from the top or pulling on the bottom edge? That would be difficult for us as the ceiling of the conservatory is too high without getting on a ladder.
It looks as if they are cutting back on temperature as well as glare. I wonder how they will perform over the coming heat wave, especially as you installed them for glare primarily.
The blinds slide along the cords and are adjusted as required as in image below. We have good control over heat gain (South facing) and the blinds extend our workspace flexibility. There are temperature and humidity sensors in this area.
These blinds might not be suitable for your application - (conservatory ceiling) and you may require more flexibility / control .
Today I discovered The Green Blind (also available in other colours). They make more sturdy external roller blinds than the “bamboo” ones I posted earlier. There seems to be a limited range of sizes and they are expensive.
thanks @lloydham for all the info. Monica
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