|
Eco options: Two fabrics, two great benefits
Our recycled fabric uses recycled post consumer waste to reduce landfill, the consumption of raw materials and embedded energy; the fabric in an average sail saves 25 kWh of energy (value for an S6 sail).
Our premium white fabric has an overall efficiency rating of 91% and is designed to reflect thermal energy while maintaining high levels of diffused light. This removes glare and keeps your room cooler on sunny days and brighter on overcast days. Reducing or removing the requirement for mechanical cooling.
Whichever fabric you choose our unique design allows you to select the degree of shading to match your needs. The unique mixture of shade and light creates a natural environment which is sure to significantly enhance your enjoyment of your room.
Three steps to improving your environment
Step 1. Providing Shade
The first, and often the most important, step is the introduction of shade within your roof space. Shade removes the direct effect of the heat of the sun and will significantly increase your comfort level on hot sunny days. The temperature in the shade on sunny days can be 10-15 degrees centigrade cooler, making you feel more comfortable and reducing the requirement for mechanical ventilation and cooling. The shade should remove most of the direct light to eliminate glare while allowing as much diffused light as possible to maintain good natural light levels - you don’t want to be sitting in the dark. The transmission value will tell you how much light will come through the fabric , the maximum values for fully diffused light are 30-35% but very few fabrics can achieve these levels and typical values are 10-20%.
InShade fabric has a light transmission value of 27% and provides 100% diffusion.
Step 2. Reducing Heat Gain
Reducing the amount of the suns energy entering your conservatory will reduce the air temperature and when used together with ventilation will allow you to maintain comfortable temperatures throughout the summer. Solar control can be introduced by either reducing the light before it before it comes through the roof or reflecting it back out again before it heats the space. Blocking the light before it enters your conservatory is more efficient but is often much less practical and usually more expensive.
The reflectance value tells you how much heat the solar control fabric, film or coating will reflect; the higher the value the better, the maximum value is around 80% (the average value for new snow and the maximum for white clouds) values above 60% are good. You should also look at the thermal absorption value as this indicates how much heat the glass or fabric will absorb and then potentially radiate into the room; the lower the value the better, values below 10% are good.
You want to reduce the heat gain levels so that they are below your capacity to remove heat through ventilation. This way you can control the temperature by adjusting flow rate of your ventilation which is much easier to achieve. You can reduce you heat gain by 50% by installing white InShade sails to 80% (typical coverage) of any exposed roof areas.
80% of area x a Solar reflectance 64% = an average reduction of 51.2%
Step 3. Improving Ventilation
The final step is to maximise and control your ventilation. Ventilation can be natural or driven by a fan. In both cases you will want to expel hot air at a high level and draw in cooler air at a lower level.
Heat is best expelled at the highest point as this is where the hottest air will naturally be. This hot air can be removed by a roof light or ridge vent. These can be simple openings or can be mechanically assisted to increase the natural flow.
To replace the hot air you want to draw in air from the coolest location possible, which is usually close the ground, your house wall and wherever possible from a shaded location.
Adding a low level air vent can be a simple way to increase air flow but make sure that as a minimum you can close it.
If you only have window vents in the walls you will need to create cross flow.
|