The front of our house is south facing and on sunny hot days we get the sun directly on our windows. This is a good thing in winter but in summer it can get very hot. With weather like the last couple of days perhaps getting more frequent, I'm wondering vaguely about some sort of external shutters or shades for those windows. Has anyone got anything like that? I'm in the UK and AIUI the shutters you sometimes see around are basically just decorative.
I guess it’ll depend strongly on your building design as to whether external shutters will work. Ours are almost flush with the external walls and so shutters are more difficult than in buildings in France for example.
We fitted microlouvre to our house. A slightly different approach.
https://greenefire.com.au/app_prod_cat/microlouvre/
Just look over the north sea. The Dutch and Belgians have all sorts of these things. Such as:
https://sunshade-experts.com/drop-arm-awnings
We have pertian type external shutters with mosquito nets on the pertian parts so we can open the windows at night. The last few days that's got the temperature down to 24° in the morning and the house heats up to 26° late evening. Outside it's been 18-23 in the morning and 32-33 in the afternoon. In the Winter I board to epertian parts to improve insulation.
For the glass front door I've made up an external curtain and for the Velux I drape an aluminised camping mat over it.
We got triple glazing fitted with the solar reflecting glass. It’s very effective.
Thanks all. I hadn't thought about the triple glazing /solar reflective approach. The other thing I've come across is external venetian blinds.
@Daffy good point about what your windows will actually allow when they weren't done with shutters in mind
As well as windows, consider what the floor and walls excellent externally are doing. Lots of planting, on pots even, a climber up the wall, replacing the 'junction' between a hard floor like patio and hard wall with a hedge can make significant difference.
Why don't you just put up internal blinds? Our blackout blinds keep the room cool and they fold down when not required.
Why don't you just put up internal blinds? Our blackout blinds keep the room cool and they fold down when not required.
Internal blinds let heat into the building before you then want to reflect it back out. They are just behind window panels designed to keep heat in. They are less effective than external blinds.
External blinds also allow you to leave windows open for airflow.
Edit: https://kensingtonblinds.uk/external-blinds-vs-internal-blinds/
Internal blinds let heat into the building before you then want to reflect been out. They are just behind window panels designed to keep heat in. They are less effective than external blinds.
True, but they're lot cheaper than new triple glazing or external shutters and seem to work for SE England temperatures.
I'm seriously considering eyelet rawlbolts with a catenary wire between them externally over two of my bungalows windows, id then hang a white dust sheet off it on the few days of crazy heat we do get
We got triple glazing fitted with the solar reflecting glass. It’s very effective.
We have tripple glazing but with normal glass because solar gain is quite handy in Winter. On the part of the building I've built myself I calculated the roof overhang so the windows get no sun between May and August but only 10% of the glass is shaded in December - warm in Winter cool in Summer.
s facing, big windows, and irritating house design (cladding above windows so limited mount point options. - would do a sort of motorhome awning with pull out legs if better mount facilties) we already have full size pull down rollers inside which work fairly well.
I looked at the cheaper/bodgier options (it is only x days a year, where x is low but increasing)
- hooks and a sheet etc as above
- cheap outdoor roller blinds and brackets so I could clip the entire blind in and out
- they do sideways pull outdoor screens /windbreaks, so clip mount them
- cheap, large (3 x 4m) swivel/tilt patio umbrella but I don’t think that will quite cover all angles but will be handy for sitting under.
We’ve also got shutters on our patio doors and mesh, the shutters can be fully down or slightly up so it touches the floor but there are ventilation holes you can then have the door open with a mesh.
I was speaking to my m8 about this and reckon the cost for something like it in the U.K. would be pretty frightening but the Spanish prices were very very good.
Sort of thing you’d ship over pre Brexit.
(Not DoDs actual house 🙂 )
Surrey. Victorian house. Internal blinds everywhere - make no difference. Holiday let in Spain had external ones - made a big difference. Suspect fitting such in the UK would be ££££££££ on older houses.
