About us | Progress to Date | Media | Contact Us
Unprotected glass and sun exposed walls can be the greatest source of unwanted heat entering your home. In fact, direct sun can generate the same heat as a single bar radiator over each square metre of the surface of your home. The radiant heat from the sun passes through the glass and is abosrbed by the building and even the furnishings, which cannot pass back out through the glass and walls and become 'trapped'. While 'trapping' radiant heat may be ideal for those colder winter night it should be avoided in the summer in order to maximise your comfort and minimise cooling costs.
Installing blinds or curtains on the inside of windows can reflect some of this heat back out, but unless they effectively trap air against the window, the heat still ends up inside the room. Keeping the heat off walls and windows before it gets inside is much more effective. Consider how hot it gets in a car that is sun exposed on a hot day, compared to a car that is parked in the shade. The same comparison can be made with your house.
If your home is made of bricks or concrete, both of which have great thermal properties, the shading of sun exposed walls is very important, especially those that are west facing. If heat is allowed to pass through the walls, this can result in significant use of air conditioners, resulting in large electricity bills. Dark coloured walls will retain and conduct more heat than light coloured walls. Again consider the example of the car. A dark coloured car is hotter inside than a light coloured car on a hot day. Well positioned external shading can block up to 90 percent of heat from entering your home, and installing shading on sun exposed north, east and west facing walls and windows can greatly redcue the impact of Alice Springs' summer temperature.
Read our external shading fact sheet.