Keeping an oak garden building cool in summer is easy as long as the building has been designed and positioned well. You can cool an oak garden building the natural way by thinking carefully about the design and by using natural features around the structure to keep things cooler throughout the year. 

Plan Glazing and Other Architectural Features for Passive Solar Design

Learning how to keep an oak garden building cool begins with looking at how a sustainable building can be designed in the first place to remain as warm as possible in winter and as cool as possible through the summer months. 

Passive solar design involves looking at how the sun’s energy enters the space, providing heat and light throughout each day and throughout the course of the year. 

Where the windows are positioned and how large they are is one important factor. Roof overhangs may also be incorporated so that the sun can shine in during the winter, when the sun is at a lower angle in the sky, but will be kept out more during summer when it is higher. 

Thermal mass is also important. When more thermal mass is incorporated into the structure, those materials, which are good and catching and storing heat energy, will keep temperatures more stable throughout the year. 

With good passive design, it will be much easier to keep the building cool as it will naturally remain cooler through the summer months. 

Insulate the Oak Garden Building Well

Another important element when it comes to the design of an oak garden building is insulation. We may tend in our climate to think more about insulation keeping a space warm during the winter. 

But insulation of the building envelope also helps to keep a space cool during the summer months without any investment in energy. 

Create Through-Breezes

When a building is well-designed, it should naturally stay cooler than the outside temperatures in the summer months. 

But further cooling should also be simple to achieve. Sometimes, natural cooling can be as simple as opening the right doors/windows to let a natural breeze blow through the space. 

Wet rags or even wet clothes hung in front of a window can also allow for some simple evaporative cooling as the breeze blows through. 

Add Green Walls

Cooling a building the natural way is also about making sure we consider how plants might be used to create a cooler space. 

First of all, we might consider plants placed on the structure itself – as living roofs and green walls. Adding green walls helps to insulate the space, and green walls can make the space inside cooler than it would otherwise have been through the warmest part of the year. 

Add Trees for Shade in Summer

When thinking about how plants can be used to make an oak garden building cooler, we can also think about plants surrounding the structure or placed nearby – not only those growing on it. 

Simply adding a deciduous tree in just the right spot to create shade in summer and let less light through into the space can make a big difference to how cool the space will stay during hot weather. Since deciduous trees shed their leaves in winter, when we want things warmer, the sunlight will be able to get through.  

A well-designed planting scheme around a new oak building can be just as important as the design of the building itself in making sure that the space is comfortable throughout the year. 

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Contact Gary today to begin your journey, book a free site visit and consultation, and join our many contented customers as you embark on your own oak framed construction project.