Bioclimatic Façades responds to the extremes of external environmental conditions by controlling heat loss and gain, managing daylight and enhancing the quality of the indoor environment.
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Daylight Management
Maximise use of natural daylight to ensure greater visual comfort, reduce the need for artificial lighting, lowering energy consumption and operating costs.
Heating and cooling strategies
Dynamic Insulation™ provides better control of thermal exchanges, enhancing energy efficiency and maintaining thermal comfort.
Natural Ventilation
Automatic window controls reduce the air conditioning bill, and create a healthier and more productive working environment.
Somfy’s commercial solutions can be used in various areas of the building: the entire or part of the façade <Facade Management>, in a specific room <Local controls> or on a single window <Motorisation>.
Facade Management Systems
Centralized controls of shading devices are processed through the Somfy bus lines or open protocols.
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Local controls
Somfy has a wide range of controls that allow each user to control their own shading devices, whatever the technology may be.
Motorisation of openings & closures
Somfy provides motors for all the major applications used in commercial buildings today.
Somfy’s solutions for residential buildings can be applied to the whole house <Home Automation>, a specific room <Local controls & automatic systems>, or to a single window <Motorisation>.
Home Automation
Somfy has solutions to power and move all openings in the house <Home Motion by Somfy>. They can be operated alongside other systems as well, such as lighting <Interoperable solutions>.
Local controls & automatic systems
Somfy has a wide range of controls and automatic devices. The choice of technology depends on the building configuration, its usage and the occupants' way of living.
Motorisation of openings & closures
Somfy provides motors for all the major applications used in residential buildings today.
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Heating and cooling strategy
Bioclimatic designs aim to reduce the energy consumption rate required to operate a building while ensuring a comfortable climate for the occupants. To do so, 2 strategies apply:
- Comfort in the summer calls for the cooling strategy : protection from direct sunlight and solar gain, minimizing heat gain*, dissipating excess heat and cooling naturally.
* heat gain is the amount of heat introduced from internal sources such as electrical appliances and building occupants. This is the primary difference found between residential and commercial buildings.
- Comfort in the winter calls for the heating strategy: capturing solar heat gain, storing it in thermal mass, retaining it through insulation and transmitting it to the building as needed.
Principles of Dynamic Insulation™
Dynamic Insulation™ works by positioning roller shutters and shading devices on the façade in order to control thermal exchange. This allows a fluctuation of the g and U-values that will in return continuously ensure optimal settings, possible strictly through automation.
The overall heat transfer coefficient (U) measures the rate of heat transfer through a window area. The lower the U-Value, the better the insulation. To measure the performance of Dynamic Insulation™, U-values for the glazing and shading devices must be combined: single-glazing with a shading device can actually provide a U-value that is inferior to double-glazing. A few examples:
Single glazing : U = 5,9- Double glazing : U = 2,7
- Triple glazing : U = 1,8
- Double glazing with roller shutters : U < 1,8
As important as it is to reduce heat transfer through openings, it is also essential to take advantage of the free heat that is provided by the sun in the winter.
The solar heat gain coefficient (G) measure the solar energy transmittance through windows. A low SGHC (approx. 0,4) allows limiting energy gain in the summer but also counters it in the winter.
Double glazing : g = 0,59- Roller shutter : g = 0,05 à 0,1
- Outdoor blinds : g = 0,05 à 0,2
- Indoor blinds : g = 0,3 à 0,5
Ideally, the solar heat gain coefficient G should be at a low in the summer to reduce passive heat gain and high in the winter to take advantage of a free source of heat.
This can be achieved by combining shading devices and glazing as well as strategic orientation of the building according to its heating and cooling needs. This is the basis of Dynamic Insulation™.
For optimal use of shading devices
They must be automated: Shading devices that are manually adjusted are used less often than ones that are automated. Even more so for hard-to-reach windows or blinds and roller shutters that are not easy to operate manually due to heavy weight or large size.
As automation is key, it is the only efficient way of using shading devices as it acts independently through climate sensors or timers when occupants are not in the building.
Main source: Traité d'architecture et d'urbanisme bioclimatique, A.Liébard et A. de Herde, Editions Observer.