Outdoor Shades
The sun is a source of life. Long summer days give us a sense of relaxation, energy, and even joy. The sun's rays provide our bodies with vitamin D. But sunburn, skin cancer, heat illnesses, accidents, crime and irritability can all be linked to heat and / or sun exposure. The solution is to avoid direct sunlight and restrict sun exposure.
But how do you avoid direct sunlight? Shade.
How do you restrict sun exposure? Shade.
How do we balance our need and enjoyment of the sun with protecting ourselves and those around us from its potential dangers? Shade!
But what if you need to be outside for more than an hour, or if you must go out at midday . . . for your job, your sport, your hobby or your play? The short answer is to put outdoor shade right where you need it. For personal protection sun protective clothing can protect the parts of your body that it covers. But to cool and protect your whole body, a group of people or animals or even plants, larger areas of shade are the answer.
Outdoor shades are among the simplest and least expensive outdoor cooling methods available. They not only cool off an area but are one of the very best protections against ultraviolet radiation. Outdoor shades can also block glare and dust and provide privacy while allowing for cooling breezes. What's more, surfaces that are shaded from the hot sun in the daytime collect less heat, so can be cooler when the shade is no longer on them. Outdoor shades can also work together with other outdoor cooling methods, such as outdoor fans, misting systems, and outdoor air conditioners, to provide the very best in safety and comfort.
Outdoor shades can actually cool the INTERIOR of the building they are attached to! When you use outdoor shades for areas next to your home or office, some of their shade will fall onto the walls of your building. This shade can actually cool down the interior of that building. This is because the sun's rays are blocked by the shade structure before they have a chance to enter the building and convert to heat, making outdoor shades more energy efficient than indoor shades. This can make the interior cooler and can also save tremendously on cooling costs.
Shade can be a bit tricky, though.
It moves!
Shade from the same object will bathe one area in the morning and a different area in the afternoon. It will also shift from season to season. The amount of protection varies with the angle of the sun in relation to where you are. The shade cast may not always be directly beneath the shade structure. In fact, at certain times of the day or year, the shade may be completely outside the structure, providing no protection at all directly under that very structure. They key is to plan in advance where your outdoor shade structure should go so its shade will fall where you need it when you need it.
3 Steps to Planning Your Shade
1. understand the shifting shade.
2. understand your area and your shade needs.
These first two steps work together to help you develop:
3. a personalized shade solution, perfect for YOU. This is the fun part! Now that you know what you need, it's time to pick it out, purchase it and put it up.
We'll walk you through each of these steps.
1. Understand the Sun's Shifting Shade
There are 3 basics you need to know to understand the shifting shade:
1. Shadows fall away from the direction of the sun.
2. Shadows are longest when the sun is closest to the horizon; shadows are shortest when the sun is overhead.
3. Know where the shade will be when you need it. This is called "shade plotting" or "shade planning" and can be as simple or as precise as you need. More precise is more complicated to figure out, but may be necessary if shade is critical -- say, if you're providing shade for sensitive people (children, the elderly), or for large groups of people, or for long periods of time.
Don't worry. We'll help you figure it out.
The first and simplest step in knowing where the sun will be is to know approximately where north or south, east and west are. Here's how. Everywhere on earth the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Standing with the morning sun at your right means you are facing north and your back is toward the south; standing with the afternoon sun at your left means you are facing north and your back is toward the south. Armed with this information, you can set up shade in your area to protect you in any short term or temporary situation.
When you face north the sun will rise on your right side and set on your left side.
Now if you know when you'll be outside, you can decide:
A) where to place your outdoor shades (umbrellas, canopies, etc.) so the shade will fall where you will be, OR
B) where to conduct your activities so you will be where the shade will fall -- you can't move that shade tree, but you set up your picnic near it.
On the summer day in the illustrations below, the structure gets almost no shade on the South. Notice the place that gets shade during the hottest part of the day is a small area close the to North side of the structure. This is where the shade will fall whether the structure is a building, canopy or even a tree. Close to the North side of the shade structure is where you should be to get some shade all day long.
Take a look at these images. They show you how the sun's position changes from morning to afternoon of a summer day. Areas that get shade in morning may not get it in the afternoon.
But let's say you want shade for more than a few hours or a few days. Maybe you want it all summer long or all year long. Have you noticed that shade is harder to find in the summer than in the winter? That's because the sun's position is different in the summer than it is in the winter. This is a result of the predictable seasonal shifts of the sun's location. Knowing where the sun will be throughout the year can help you avoid some costly and disappointing mistakes.
DONT' LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU
Sometimes people will build decks or patios just as winter is ending in order to be able to use it from the first warm day on. They have it built and start enjoying the early spring shade immediately. But as early spring turns to late summer they notice areas that were getting shade four months ago are getting no shade whatsoever. The shade continues to shift until finally in winter, about the time they had it built, the shade finally reaches back over to cover it.
Without knowing where your shade will fall year-round, you may risk making investments and plans that are virtually unusable. What a disappointment! What a waste! A little more knowledge can help you prevent this. The same knowledge can help you correct it by showing you the best place to position additional outdoor shades.
The second step in knowing where the sun will be is to know approximately how the sun will shift throughout the year.
* north of the equator: the summer sun rises in the northeast, peaks nearly straight overhead, and sets in the northwest; the winter sun rises in the southeast, peaks lower toward the south, and sets in the southwest -- sunlight comes from the south all day long all winter long
* south of the equator: the summer sun rises in the southeast, peaks nearly straight overhead, and sets in the southwest; the winter sun rises in the northeast, peaks lower toward the south, and sets in the northwest
Notice that even though it's the same time of day in both pictures above, summer shadows are much shorter than winter shadows. If you were to set up a deck in the northwest winter shade, by summer that shade would have completely disappeared, leaving your deck and guests to bake in the summer heat. This shows how critical it is to plan your shade in advance and understand where shade will be during the times that you'll need it.
If you live north of the equator summer shadows will always be toward the north.
If you live south of the equator summer shadows will always be toward the south. Keep in mind summer falls in different months north of the equator than it does south of the equator.
This may be all the information you need to plan for your shade needs. But you can get even more precise about the sun's location by using some helpful tools.
Sun path calculators and computer applications help you predict the position of the sun throughout the course of a day, season or year. These tools are enormously helpful in situations where sun protection is critical, such as at schools, playgrounds, and anywhere children, the elderly or the public need protection, or where permanent shade structures will be installed (Any company installing outdoor shades for you should be able to help position your outdoor shade so it will be most effective for your needs). The more precise you can be in predicting the sun, the more use you'll be able to make of its shade.
But the more precise you get, the more complicated it gets. These calculators and applications can be expensive and extremely difficult to understand. In fact, I'm working through trying to understand them myself so I can help you with it. If I can ever figure it out, I'll add a page to the site to help walk you through it.
In the meantime, I highly recommend doing a simple shade audit for your area. Much, MUCH simpler to do and understand. And I can tell you how to do one!
2. Understand Your Area and Your Needs with a Shade Audit
The first step in understanding your own unique outdoor shade needs is to do a shade audit. This is a simple activity that helps you develop and draw out a personalized outdoor shade solution suited to your area and your needs. A basic shade audit has 3 parts:
PART 1. A visual part where you draw the area you are auditing. This uses your knowledge of the shifting shade and tells you where and when shade will fall in your area.
PART 2. A thinking part where you answer questions about the space and how it's used. This will tell you where and when shade would be most beneficial for you.
PART 3. The solution(s) -- what kind of shade to add and where, or where to move activities and when -- your personal shade solution!
Click here to learn how to do a simple shade audit. It will open in a new window.
3. Your Personal Shade Solution
Once you understand when and where you'll need outdoor shade you'll need to decide how to supply it. This section will tell you about your many shade options. Here you'll learn about the qualities and features of different shade structures and materials. You'll learn about advantages to permanent, temporary and portable shade.
Your personalized shade solution may be as simple as selecting a single outdoor shade structure that will protect any given area for a few hours, perhaps a few umbrellas or a canopy. Or it may incorporate natural shade (your local plant nursery can be tremendously helpful in recommending shade plants that will thrive in your area), and a number of different manufactured outdoor shades. An example might be a combination of trees, a patio cover and outdoor shade curtains.
Your shade solution might consider how temporary or how permanent the shade should be. It might consider the shade structure's placement and material, as well as the placement and material of the shade, itself. Will the look of your outdoor shade be important? Will it need to enhance the look of your home or business? Or is function the only consideration? And your personal shade solution must of course fit within your budget and timing.
Learn about your options.
Keep reading on the next pages for information on
outdoor shade structures and materials.
