Reflex-Rol

Window Shades - Window Blinds Control Glare - Solar Control

Reflex-Rol UK are manufacturers of high performance solar and glare control systems.

Different materials may be selected according to the requirement to reduce heat gain, remove solar glare, improve visibility or insulation, and the specific location and nature of the premises.

General Information

Why do you need solar and glare control?

In short, we need to control the solar heat entering our buildings and prevent light entering via windows being the source of glare on our computer screens.

Solar Heat Gain can make us uncomfortable in the workplace, and trying to achieve an ambient temperature of 21.5° C, as stipulated in current E.U. Health and Safety directives, can be difficult given today's building designs favouring large expanses of glass.

Example: A modern office building can easily experience heat gain of 50 kW on a single facade. The installation of Reflex-Rol shading could cut this by 40 kW. That is the equivalent of turning off 40 single bar electric heaters. Given the relatively high ambient temperatures of this country, cooling 1 kW can consume 2 to 30 kW of purchased power (not cheap) and every 1 kW hour of electrical energy causes a gas fired power station to produce about 0.43 kg of CO2.

Cooling systems are expensive to install, maintain and run, and in context of climatic change, their emissions are not environmentally friendly. Without doubt, it's better to prevent excessive heat gain, particularly when this can be achieved with a flexible (virtually) non energy consuming shading system. Depending upon which Reflex-Rol shading material is chosen, more than 80% of the solar heat energy projected at a window can be prevented from entering a room.

Glare Control has become more important with the deployment of every additional VDU. 30000 movements of the eye (contractions and dilations of the pupil) per day can rapidly lead to fatigue and eye strain in your operatives if widely contrasting levels of light exist in the workplace.

Similarly, bad posture and the resulting strains on the body is a common complaint as operatives adjust their position in relation to the VDU to avoid glare. Such problems could be overcome by stopping the natural light entering a building altogether and replacing it with artificial light. This however incurs costs through electricity bills, greater heat and the loss of the benefits of natural light, together with contact with the outside world.

Research has shown that ideal working conditions exist with lighting levels between 200 cd/m² and 400 cd/m² (cd = candela) in conjunction with Lux levels (ambient light levels) of between 500 to 600.

A shading system delivering a light transmission (T65 ) of 3% or less can achieve these levels with natural light.

A common misconception is that solar shading is only for the summer months. Whilst true in respect of heat gain, glare is noticeably worse in winter months, since the sun is much lower in the sky, and will penetrate far deeper into a room.

The different requirements on East, South and West facades may be obvious, but the 'no blinds to the north' attitude can be totally wrong as ambient light and reflected glare may still cause a significant problem.