Designing Buildings in Hot and Sunny Locations: How Window Film Can Help

As a designer, you have to account for many variables when designing buildings in hot, sunny locations. This includes using building materials that can withstand heat and constant sunlight, creating shade around the building and more. But what about the interior of the building? Though you may not realize it, heat and sunlight can eventually wreak havoc on the inside of your home or business.

Read on for tips for designing a building in a hot climate and how window film can help.

Common Problems for Buildings in Sunny Locations

Sunny, hot and humid locations present unique problems to your buildings' home and business owners. Distracting glares, uneven temperatures, high energy bills and faded furniture can all impact the building you design:

• Glare: Direct sunlight coming in through windows causes glare that can interfere with peoples' daily activities and create an uncomfortable indoor space.
• Temperature control: Sunlight streaming in through windows can create warmer temperatures inside the building while areas away from windows remain cooler. This causes inconvenient and uncomfortable temperature fluctuations.
• Higher energy costs: It's natural to crank up the air conditioning when it's warm, but unnecessarily running it because of temperature imbalances caused by warmer climates can lead to high energy consumption and bills.
• Fading of furniture: Constant exposure to sunlight can fade your building's flooring, furniture and upholstery over time, making them look discolored and out of date.

How Window Film Can Help

Making window film part of your approach to designing buildings in sunny locations is beneficial in numerous ways. Check out how window film from companies like Madico can reduce and even eliminate the problems listed above:

1. Reduce Glare

Premium solar control window films, like Madico's Optivision® series, reduce daytime heat and glare, all while providing a natural view of the outside. When you incorporate window films like Optivision® into your design plans for buildings in sunny locations, you're reducing the intensity of the windows' internal reflectivity, reducing glare. By reducing glare, you can ensure a more productive and comfortable environment for your next commercial building or home.

Our Optivision® series for commercial and residential buildings are available in different film variations:

• Optivision® 45: Reduces glare by 49%
• Optivision® 35: Reduces glare by 58%
• Optivision® 25: Reduces glare by 70%
• Optivision® Reflective 15: Reduces glare by 84%
• Optivision® Reflective 5: Reduces glare by 91%

2. Lower Energy Costs

With Madico's Sunscape® premium commercial and residential window films, you can prepare house designs for hot, humid climates without worrying about creating an indoor environment that leads to high energy bills.

When intense heat and sunlight hits your building in the summer, Sunscape® reflects that heat away rather than let it through the windows. In the winter, heat and sunlight are reflected back inside, creating a temperature-regulated building that's comfortable year-round. This way, you can engineer a building that stays cool in the summer and cozy during the winter.

Our Sunscape® window tints can improve your next building project by:

• Absorbing up to 58% of total solar energy
• Externally reflecting up to 55% of visible light during the summer months
• Internally reflecting up to 33% of visible light during the winter months

3. Prevent the Fading of Furniture

Avoid the early fading of your building's floors, interior furniture and upholstery with solar control films. Madico's solar control films reduce the effects of direct and constant sunlight exposure on your home or business's furniture, preserving their quality. Plus, it saves businesses and homeowners money in the long run, as replacement costs can be expensive.

4. Block Ultraviolet Rays

Madico's commercial and residential window tints are specially designed to block out ultraviolet (UV) rays. These films allow natural sunlight to filter through windows while rejecting up to 99% of the sun's harmful UV rays.

With solar control film, you can protect your building's occupants from skin damage without sacrificing natural lighting. We're dedicated to developing quality projects that protect your building's tenants against UV rays, which is why the Skin Cancer Foundation recommends our window films for sun protection.

All of these window film options are just the tip of the iceberg. Our catalog of residential and commercial tint options offers countless solutions for your next big architectural project. Start designing for a hot climate with confidence and choose Madico window film to protect your building or home against light and heat.

Additional Benefits of Window Film

Even when you're not creating house designs for hot climates, you can still enjoy the other benefits of using Madico window film on your project's glass interior and windows. In addition to helping regulate internal temperature disparities and cut energy costs, our window films offer numerous safety benefits and customization opportunities.

1. Keep Shattered Glass Together

Madico is dedicated to creating window films that protect building occupants. Our safety and security window films are made with a strong adhesive that holds loose shards of glass in place if an object breaks the window.

Natural disaster and blast mitigation films are rigorously tested to withstand harsh weather like high winds, heavy rain and earthquakes. You can deter potential break-ins with our anti-intrusion films and easily replace vandalized windows by simply replacing the film.

Safety and security window films can protect your buildings against:

• Natural disasters
• Accidents involving flying or wind-borne objects
• Explosive blasts
• Smash-and-grab incidents
• Intruders
• Vandalism

2. Add Decorative Touches

Decorative printables can transform your residential or commercial windows into works of art. Our printables are fully customizable and can be viewed from both sides of the glass.

With two adhesive options available, you're free to promote your brand or style in a way that suits your building. For high-traffic areas, we offer select films that are scratch-resistant coatings and block UV rays. With our decorative printables, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

With decorative printables, you can:

• Create full-color murals and patterns
• Create small graphics and business logos
• Soften light in entryways
• Add privacy

3. Create Privacy

You can create a sense of privacy anywhere with decorative window films. Enhance the look of glass interiors by adjusting your glass or window pane's opacity. Our Black Out film blocks 100% of light transmission for full-on privacy, while our Frost Matte, View Control and White Out films give the appearance of etched glass. These privacy films diffuse light to create a softer illumination in your building's interior.

You can add films to create privacy anywhere, including:

• Glass conference rooms
• Partition walls
• Retail spaces
• Showrooms
• Residential bathrooms
• Entryways
• Glass doors

Contact Madico for More Information and Support

You can learn more about Madico's products by accessing our online resources through ARCAT. There, you'll find product information, specifications, catalogs, LEED information and videos.

Ready to begin designing? Get support today from one of our dedicated engineers and see what Madico can do for your next project.