The orientation of our house and the different exposure of the rooms are very important factors especially with regard to thermal comfort.
The exposure to sunlight affects the well-being of human life. The new technology, however, allows us to use the sun as a source of clean, renewable energy. A simple choice is to take the shadings and photovoltaic facades.
The light of the sun, as we well know, brings a number of benefits to the building itself in terms of energy production, but sometimes if in excess, it can be annoying. This is the main reason why in architecture to protect the openings from solar radiation in excess we use screening systems against solar radiation.
These screening systems are devices, fixed or adjustable, whose function is to tone down the brightness and warmth of the sunlight not only in the summer months, but throughout the year. These are nothing more than filters or screens, placed outside the building so as to get the maximum benefits.
Among the various shielding systems exist, one that is defined active protection for the solar control, that is the shading, which can be achieved in most types of shape and material. In addition to sunscreen, which is certainly the most widespread kind of screening systems there are multiple others, fixed or adjustable, that allow you to tone down the brightness and the heat input not only during the summer months.
These elements are able to adapt perfectly to the facade of the building and are installed in correspondence of the openings, so as to restrict the passage of light and heat in excess.
The shading is a major technological innovation in the field of the frames. This is not only a functional element, but it is also an architectural element that can also create designs on the facade.
In modern architecture, a major goal when designing, is to try to integrate in the best possible way, without being invasive the photovoltaic technology.
We try to apply this technology to the parts of the buildings, such as photovoltaic panels, photovoltaic tiles, photovoltaic glass, etc. ..
This technology can also be applied in the external cladding and shielding systems, in fact we can talk about shading and solar photovoltaic facades.
If you opt for the glass-glass solution, this will not only be more aesthetically pleasing, but it will be able to ensure a high amount of natural lighting within the environment you want. The adoption of this system, also guarantees a variable shielding during the daily hours, which is manifested with different degrees of transparency of the glass element, obtaining in this way the right level of shading for that area, in that particular hour of the day or time of year.
The shading therefore, must create shading and shielding from sunlight, but the shading dimensional level to be defined as such, must comply with some limits. The photovoltaic solar shading must have a maximum overall length equal to twice the transparent surface that is shielding.
This makes us understand how the size of the structures shading function with photovoltaic vary from case to case, so it must be studied from time to time, because there may be different situations.
Photovoltaic cells can be applied on both opaque or transparent background. The photovoltaic solar shading, in addition to shading individual windows or individual glass parts of the walls, can also cover the entire glass facade of a building, in this case it must be composed of multiple parallel rows of inclined modules relative to the vertical wall of the building.
The photovoltaic facades have the advantage of exploiting the external walls of the building to produce clean energy, giving rise to a kind of false-outside of the building.
Classic examples of photovoltaic facades are the glass palaces, in these cases it is not possible to orient the modules, because we are talking about a real coating, but despite this they are able to get good returns, thanks to their extensions, just because it affects the whole surface of the building.
The photovoltaic facades have thus usefulness, are a way to take advantage of the spaces, which normally would not be used to produce clean energy.