This Swinger Hill terrace house had a northern window into a small court but the southern wall restricted the sun’s entry in the colde months almost entirely. A double reflector system would have given her a wonderful solar penetration into the living area but she decided to just put sunshading on wires across the court. (See 2005 Other Retrofit Devices) The scheme shown above would have served both summer and winter situations very well.
This Swinger Hill terrace house had a northern window into a small court but the southern wall restricted the sun’s entry almost entirely. A double reflector system would have given her a wonderful solar penetration into the living area but she decided to just put sunshading on wires across the court. The scheme shown above would have served both summer and winter situations very well, but would be more expensive.
Three horizontal adjustable Coolaroo blinds were chosen instead on cost grounds.
They are stored just above the north window in winter as a Roman blind on tensioned cables to the other wall and can be extended simply by pulling a cord to extend or retract.
The fabric is knitted which gives it a refractive quality which normally woven (weft and warp) shadecloths do not have (simply blocking the sunlight and the daylight). The Coolaroo blocks 95% of the infra-red sunlight and heat but ‘bends’ about 90% of the daylight into the room.
Its luminosity is higher than the blue sky and the foliage seen above the shade thus providing a high daylight factor inside the room, reducing the need for electric lighting to be switched on.
The use of dense canvas would make the room very dark with no penetrating sunlight.
