Varieties of Reflector/Shades

 Zomeworks has made custom reflector/shade doors for drum walls over the years, such as those used on my house in 1972. The early version of reflector (Fig. 1) was inspired by Harold Hay and doubled as nighttime insulation.

Fig. 1 Heavy insulated drum doors raised and lowered daily, Baer Zome Cluster, Corrales, NM 1972

We closed the R-10 doors every night, cranking them up with a winch (Fig.2), over single glazing in front of the drums. In 1991 we changed single glazing to double glazing, replaced the leaking steel drums that had been racked on their sides with plastic drums racked upright and replaced the insulated doors with plain 1/8” aluminum panels that lie on the gravel during winter and are pressed against the wall during the summer to shade. (Fig.3)

Fig. 2 Winch used to raise door

Fig. 3
Aluminum sheet reflectors raised & lowered seasonally 1991

Reflector/shades for south walls need not be the full height of the wall.  At the Benedictine Monastery in Pecos, New Mexico, circa 1976 (Fig.4), we placed two
rows of steel drums on their sides, about 4’ high, so we needed only a 4’ high reflector door for summer shade.

Fig. 4  South wall of Monastery with set-back clerestory windows on roof. Windows beneath eaves light counter-top desk above drums with glazing and reflectors.  Pecos, NM  c. 1976

 
Inside the building the drums lived within a long window-seat desk.  Vents controlled the heat flow from the drums to the office space above.

Monastery reflectors held down with bricks.

than glazed walls. The reflector/shade on a roof is out of the way, and on horizontal skylights a curved reflector makes a greater increase in winter heat gain than a flat reflector for a south wall.