Louvers

Facility owners and architects are increasingly facing the challenge of enhancing building performance while promoting aesthetic design and natural light usage.

Unicel Architectural is specialized in developing customized shading systems that allow optimal daylight and sunshade, reducing glare, heat gain and cooling energy consumption.

The aluminum sunscreens manufactured by Unicel Architectural are available with different types of louvers, fixed at any predetermined angle to suit the project’s specific demands. The elegant lines and curves give them a contemporary sleek aspect that gets translated to the applications to which they are incorporated.

Benefits

The maximum intensity of solar radiation falling on a square foot of horizontal surface in the temperate latitudes is of the order of 100 watts while for vertical surfaces it is about 75 watts, according to research. This means that a large amount of energy falls on the exterior surfaces of every building at certain times of the year, causing severe building performance problems if the design does not incorporate effective solutions to glare and heat gain.

The solar energy entering a building through glass areas in the outside walls can be one of the major sources of heat. Unwanted in warm climates and during summer, this heat has to be expelled by expensive cooling systems. Moreover, glare is another important consequence of sunlight coming though a window. To reduce these effects and to redirect light into the building, sunshade devices are specially conceived to follow sunlight angles and maximize daylight usage.

Architects recommend installing exterior shading devices in order to consistently diminish the amount of light and heat that seep in. The light can propagate through the exterior glass layer, but the louvers reflect the solar heat back outside and lower the amount of streaming sunlight. Reducing solar heat gain on the glazing helps lower the cooling costs of any building.

If the building has large areas of glazing in any façade that receives direct sunshine and occupants must work near the windows, the best option is to design the building with the glass facing north. Also, the second best arrangement in the Northern hemisphere, when windows must face east, south or west, is to provide exterior shading devices or blinds between glass (Vision Control®).

Apart from energy efficiency performances, sunshade devices make a statement about the building and the architect who designed it. The sleek shapes, combined with the minimization of direct sunlight penetration and heat gain, allow building owners to better control and use daylight while making important resource savings.