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Right – This shrub has been pruned to allow views out the windows of this home while providing shade to walls, windows, and roof.
Right – This tree shades walls, windows, roofs, and grounds for two adjacent homes.
Right- Landscaping shades the entry on the south west corner of this hot dry climate building.
Right: This house plan orients broad building surfaces away from the west and east, trees are used to shade the west and east, and large overhangs shade windows on the south wall
Seven categories of exterior window shading attachments, identified on the DOE Efficient Window Coverings website.
Shade trees planted on the east or west sides of a house are one of the most effective measures that can be taken to reduce heat gains
Sheer shades can provide very effective daylighting and glare control while maintaining a softened view to the outside
Side by side comparisons of standard roofing colors (top row) and cool colors (bottom row) shows that solar reflectance (R) can be reduced significantly using special coatings with almost no change to the color
Small, battery-powered evaporative coolers can be appropriate for personal cooling in arid climates (only)
Some whole-house fans are equipped with an automatic drop-down cover to provide an air seal at the ceiling level when the fan is not in use
Some whole-house fans use an automatic insulated cover achieve high R-values when the fan is not in use
Sources of heat gain in a house include solar gains, infiltration, conduction through walls and roof, occupants, and internal equipment
Sources of heat gain in a house include solar gains, infiltration, conduction through walls and roof, occupants, and internal equipment
Sun paths through the sky in winter, spring, summer, and fall show that a home receives the most sun from the south in the winter and from the east/west in the summer
Tall annuals, like the sunflowers in this picture, can provide very effective shade in summer (left), provide a pleasant view from inside (right), and allow sun into the home in winter when the plants die back.
Temperatures in deep undisturbed soil at a given location are approximately equal to the annual average air temperature for that location
The cool shingles on the right have been coated with a ceramic coating to reflect near-infrared radiation, resulting in a cooler roof as shown by these thermal images (red and yellow are hotter, green and blue are cooler).
The design of this home incorporates multiple methods to reduce summertime solar gains including roll-down exterior blinds, wide exterior horizontal louvers, minimized east/west-facing windows, and vegetation.
The DOE Efficient Window Coverings website identifies twelve categories of interior window shading attachments.
The Efficient Window Coverings website allows direct comparison of various window attachment types based on thermal, visual, functional, and installation and durability criteria.
The existing dark tile roof on this home (top photo) was covered with a light -colored coating on day 6 (middle photo), resulting in a significant reduction in attic temperature and cooling energy consumption (bottom)
The frequency, duration, and intensity of extreme heat events have increased every decade since the 1960s
The IR image on the right shows the sun is heating the southeast-facing wall of this concrete-block house to 36C (97F); this corner of the home would not be a good place for a cool room due to lack of shading and insulation
The light-colored exterior roll-down shades on this building, and the shaded entryway provide very effective control of solar heat gain
The number of days per year that the temperature exceeds 90°F is expected to increase throughout the contiguous U.S. when comparing mid-century (2036-2065) to near-present (1976-2005)
The operable windows in this house are located at occupant level to provide comfort ventilation.
The patio roof on this home provides full shade to large glass doors and windows, reducing the home's heat gains.
The south face of this home has an overhanging second floor, a pergola, and a roof eave to provide effective window and door shading for both floors in the summer without blocking view, diffuse daylighting, breezes, or ingress/egress
The standard asphalt shingle roof on this Florida home readily absorbs solar energy, allowing it to heat up to 140°F (60°C) as shown in the thermal image on the right
The thermal image on the left and normal picture on the right show the cooling effect of a shade tree on walls and ground surfaces as compared to unshaded areas of the property (darker colors are cooler while lighter colors are hotter in the left image).
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map can be a valuable reference in determining appropriate landscape plants for your climate .
The white TPO membrane roof on the row house on the right performs extremely well at reflecting solar energy and maintaining cool surface temperatures while the black EPDM membrane roof on the left heats up rapidly in the sunlight
The window awnings on this house provide a simple but very effective way to reduce solar gains while still allowing view, daylight, and ventilation through the windows
There are many landscaping strategies that can be used to reduce the cooling load and energy consumption of a home and its neighborhood.
There are multiple options for exterior shading of east and west facing glazing systems to avoid direct beam radiation
Thermal mass causes a time lag in the transfer of heat as well as a dampening of peak temperatures, as shown by this plot
These aluminum Bahama shutters shade west-facing windows from afternoon sun and are approved for hurricane protection
These trees were planted between the sidewalk and the street, providing shade to homes, pedestrians, parked cars, and the street.
This depiction of a saddle installed window heat pump does not obstruct window use and provides fairly quiet 120 Volt operation
This diagram provides a more realistic view of how a typical direct evaporative cooler operates
This experimental earth tube is 220 ft long, 8 inches in diameter, and is buried 10 feet deep
This experimental radiative/evaporative hybrid cooling system uses water to reject heat at night through radiation and evaporation
This heat pump water heater has been fitted with ducts to exhaust its waste cooling into the occupied living area
This home uses light-colored standard paints and finishes on siding and roofing materials to reduce cooling loads without adding material cost.
This hot climate zone home uses high quality batt insulation between studs to insulate this connecting garage wall.
This hot climate zone home uses high quality batt insulation to insulate truss-joist headers.
This house is sited so the existing trees will shade the west-facing walls to minimize summertime heat gain
This infrared image shows little heat gain from north-facing double-pane windows with blinds, but significant heat output from computer monitors
This MSHP operates with 120 volts power, has an EER of 18 Btu/Wh, uses about 800 W at full output, and operates remotely with a smart home control system
This room has several passive and low-energy cooling features including a ceiling fan, fully operable French doors, window shading, an outdoor water feature, and light-colored hard-scaping.
This search for metal roofing products on the CRRC Rated Roof Products Directory highlights the initial and 3-year aged SRI values for each product
This simplified decision tree can help a homeowner or contractor assess how appropriate a cool roof or wall will be for a particular home
This wall and window assembly has excessive framing around the windows, which can lead to heat gain in how climate zones.
This whole house fan is suspended from rafters and connected to the intake grille by a curved insulated duct, greatly reducing vibration and noise in the occupied space
This whole-house fan is suspended from rafters and connected to the intake grille by a curved acoustic duct, greatly reducing vibration and noise in the occupied space
Use a truss joist header assembly as shown here to reduce thermal bridging in hot climate zones.
Using outdoor misters or spray fountains can cool the outside air before it enters the house
Using roof and wall materials with a high Solar Reflectance Index (SRI) will reduce heat gains.
Vertical trellises and tall shrubs provide very effective shading to the east-facing wall of this home.
Vines growing on vertical trellises, along with tall shrubs, provide very effective shade for the east side of this house.
Wall surfaces having high solar reflectance and high thermal emittance will remain cooler when exposed to direct sunlight.
When averaged over several years, more fatalities are caused by extreme heat than by any other weather-related hazard
When preserving a tree, construct a temporary fence around the tree canopy and post signs to keep out vehicles that might compact soil and construction waste that could contaminate the soil.
White walls and roofs; overhangs and awnings; and operable shutters and garden walls all help to keep out unwanted solar heat gain providing cool interiors for this Florida home.
Whole-house fans draw outside air through windows into the home and exhaust it into a vented attic
Whole-house fans or wind-driven cross ventilation can be used to draw air across thermal mass for a night flush strategy
Wrong - this building provides no overhangs, minimal window shading, and clear window glass resulting in high solar heat gain.
Wrong – The south side of this building in Arizona has very little architectural or landscape shading to block solar heat gain.
Wrong – This multi family building appears to be done in traditional southwest architecture but the lack of useful overhangs, dark colored walls, and lack of tinting on windows will result in significant solar heat gain.
Wrong: Single sided ventilation without at least two windows, wing walls, and predictable wind directions is ineffective for generating wind-driven crossflow.