Environmentally Friendly Ways To Keep Your House Cool.

Living in South Africa? Yes. Paying ridiculous electricity bills? Yes. Wanting to save energy while still keeping your house cool? Of course! So how are you going to do this?

Let’s start off with passive cooling- the less expensive way that will keep your home a good few degrees cooler. The purpose of passive cooling is to use the architectural design of your house to improve the indoor temperature without using too much electricity. The following elements influence the passive cooling of your home:

1. What direction your is house facing
2. Walls and windows protection from the sun
3. The type of material your roof is made of- reflective materials usually keep the building cooler.
4. Air ventilation throughout the house
5. Materials inside your house such as certain tiling, surfaces, etc. Using material such as stainless steel cladding on your walls and surfaces will make certain areas of your home feel cooler.

Good insulation is absolutely vital when it comes to keeping your house cool. This includes your roof, floors, walls, doors and windows. The following influences insulation:

1. Trees shading your house
2. Proper sealing around windows and doors
3. Thick window coverings such as screens and curtains
4. Window shutters and screens
5. Window tints, also  double glazed windows

Air circulation can also help keep the temperature at bay in summer. Air vents in the walls and ceilings can help air escape; also opening doors and windows in the evening when the temperature drops will help bring in cooler air.

When it comes to either opening up your doors and windows for fresh air or closing your doors and windows to keep out the heat in the morning, both can benefit you depending on if your home is insulated well or not. If your home is not insulated well, rather open up all the doors and windows to let in fresh air.

Also, when it is extremely hot, avoid turning on appliances that produce extra heat; this includes, stoves, hair dryers, dishwashers, lights, TVs, etc.

How Glass Enhances The Home

The design and style of the glass in a home can say a lot about a person's personality and tastes and these days, glass crafting has reached new heights. Gone are the days of being limited to simple straight lines that may become boring after a few years. The new designs available feature beautiful curves and aluminium  flawless frames that catch the eye and last for years. There have been so many leaps in the way glass is made and what it is paired with in recent years that the customer has more choice than ever before.

Common Applications Of Aluminium Metal

Aluminium has some unique qualities that make it suitable for a wide range of uses. For one, it is very light. Secondly, it is rust resistant. Thirdly, the metal's oxide has a very high melting point. It is also a very good conductor of heat and electricity. 

Setting The Record Straight About Aluminium Windows

If you are renovating your home or want to upgrade your doors and windows, aluminium is a great material to consider for many reasons. You can enjoy many benefits with aluminium  windows and doors, including:

Why Aluminium Is The Right Choice For Greenbuilding

Aluminium is a soft and ductile metallic substance used in building and construction. It is the most abundant metal in the earth's crust and it is relatively easy to mine. In this era of clean and green building materials, aluminium is a great choice because it is friendly to the environment. Some of the reasons for the popularity of this metal are durability, flexibility, economy and efficiency. Experts in the building industry love this metal because of the reasons below.

The Properties Of Aluminium

Aluminium, a chemical element in the Boron group, is the third most abundant element on the earth and the most abundant metal in the earth's crust. It is a strong, easily malleable metal element with a low density (meaning it is lightweight), is resistant to corrosion and is a good conductor of heat and electricity. As a result of these properties it is used extensively as a structural material in buildings, aircraft and other lightweight vehicles as well as other applications that take advantage of its heat and electricity conductivity. Following are some of the main properties of aluminium and the advantages they provide.

Weight and Strength

Aluminium is about one third the density of steel, and thus much lighter, while still having high tensile strength. Aluminium is typically alloyed with other metals (in the range of a few percent to weight) to improve its mechanical properties. Typical alloying agents are zinc, magnesium and silicon. One of the primary advantages of aluminium is that it does not become brittle at low temperatures, in fact its strength increases. At high temperatures (over 100 degrees Celsius), however, aluminium becomes significantly weaker.

Aluminium is best known for its weight to strength ratio. While it is not the strongest metal, its low weight means that is provides fuel efficiency in boats and cars and is invaluable in planes since they are extremely sensitive to the weight/energy ratio required to achieve flight. The metal also has the ability to absorb almost three times as much energy as steel when force is applied before being permanently damaged.

Malleability and Workability

Aluminium is the second most malleable and sixth most ductile of metals. It has these properties because of its isotropic polycrystalline structure; that is, the crystals that form it line up and interlock in all directions. Because of this it is easily machined, cast, drawn and extruded. Aluminium can be easily worked using standard machining methods such as milling, cutting, drilling, bending and so on.

Malleability refers to the ability of the metal to be deformed when compressed without cracking or breaking while ductility means that it can be deformed without fracturing under tensile forces.

Because of these properties, it can be machined or extruded in a wide variety of ways without using a great deal of energy and enables the easy production of strips and foils, as well as other specialized shapes and forms, for a wide range of applications.

Corrosion Resistance

One of the most advantageous properties of aluminium is that it is extremely resistant to corrosion. While it is highly reactive, it naturally forms a thin oxide layer on its surface that prevents further oxidization of the metal itself. This oxide is impermeable and adheres strongly to the aluminium's surface and is highly dense. In addition, when damaged it repairs itself quickly to form an unbroken surface once more. It can also be anodised which increases the thickness of the oxide layer to provide additional protection against corrosion.

Because of this, buildings constructed from aluminium are almost maintenance free if care is taken to isolate the points where the metal comes into contact with other metals that may hasten the corrosion process.

Conductivity, Reflectivity and Electro Magnetic Properties

Aluminium is a good thermal and electrical conductor (it has about 60% of the conductivity of copper while having 30% of copper's density). Because of this it is often used for the transmission of electricity in high voltage power lines. In fact it is almost exclusively used for large scale power distribution for overhead transmission lines and busbars. Its thermal conductivity means that it is often used as a heat sink to dissipate heat (for example, from computer CPUs). It has also found applications in cookware because of this (and the fact that it is inert and poses no health risks).

It is also a good reflector of visible light, particularly when it is polished to a high sheen. It has a reflectivity of 71% unpolished and 97% when polished. As a result it has been argued that it is the most reflective material known and is used extensively in the production of light fittings for this reason.

Aluminium has the property of screening electromagnetic radiation and tightly sealed structures made from the metal can exclude this radiation almost completely. It is also a non-magnetic metal and can be used to protect against magnet-based x-ray devices.

Recycling

Aluminium is easily recyclable and is highly economic. It is theoretically possible to achieve 100% reclamation with no loss in properties of the metal. It has been calculated that recycling involves an energy cost of only 5% of that required to produce the same quantity of the metal from its ore. The best example of this is in drink and food cans which are made from up to 50% of recycled aluminium in Europe and the US. For more information click here

The Advantages Of Aluminium Sliding Doors

Aluminium sliding doors gained in popularity during the latter part of the twentieth century. Due to today's technology, these doors are suitable for any building. Let us discuss the numerous advantages of using these doors on your buildings.

Advantages of Aluminium Doors

The following are just some of the advantages in using these doors for your buildings: 

• Strength -- they are difficult to bend and dent; they are lightweight and durable
• Weatherproof -- these doors are weather-resistant and are less likely to rot or warp due to rain, humidity and snow
• Easy to maintain; do not require painting because the colour is powder coated on to the metal
• Lightweight
• Non-magnetic
• Easily recyclable
• Readily available resource
• Available in several different shapes and forms
• Increased level of security
• Available in virtually any colour and do not require painting
• Lasts up to 50 years before needing replacement
• Increase the integrity of the structure and meet the highest standards for water and air infiltration
• Helps optimize your homes energy efficiency 

Why Use Aluminium?

Along with the many benefits mentioned above, you may be interested in knowing that this is a recyclable and sustainable material. It is environmentally friendly and has a low impact on the environment. This material is the building industry's choice of materials for now and for the future.

It is recyclable, versatile and sustainable. These are the three important characteristics for any material used to construct an environmentally friendly building. It is one of the most important materials in any successful recycling program. It offers a high scrap value, widespread industry support and consumer acceptance.

Aluminium sliding doors can be made from recycled building materials which in turn save in the total energy used for the production of this material. Other advantages in using recycled aluminium to make doors include the following:

• Reduces pollution emissions
• Recycling reduces the use of energy; it takes only five percent of the energy needed to make doors from raw aluminium
• Sustainable building material -- it is one of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust

Cons to using Aluminium

No list would be complete without the mention of the disadvantages of using this product. There are only a few worth mentioning. For one, other materials, such as PVC are not as expensive to use. Although aluminium costs more, PVC is not as strong or resistant to weather or extreme temperatures. PVC will not last for up to 50 years the way this building material will.

PVC is more flexible and easier to work with. However, this flexibility causes PVC to wear quicker. It is not resistant to natural disasters or fire the way that aluminium is. PVC wears out over the years and will fade from sun exposure.

As you can see, there are a number of reasons to use aluminium sliding doors. The benefits include the fact that aluminium is an Eco-friendly building material. These doors will last for several years and offer benefits above and beyond the use of PVC and wood. These types of doors provide timeless beauty that is long lasting and will compliment your building perfectly. For more information click here