[Greenbuilding] Light Shelves

[Nick Pine]

Clarke Olsen <colsen at taconic.net> writes:

>  ... a louvered light shelf would allow rain and wind to pass through. 
> Movable louvers could be tweaked indefinitely...

Indoor horizontal Bali blinds are available with an inexpensive 
"Controlmate option" and a day/night sensor that can tilt them open 
to a predetermined angle when the sun rises. We might cover them 
with adhesive foil tape to increase reflectivity and (with some help from 
a microcontroller) change the tilt automatically to bounce sun from 
a south window up onto a line near on the north edge of a white ceiling, 
as in a heliostat. Duane Johnson and Zomeworks make heliostats with 
outdoor mirrors. 

"Lawrence Lile" <LLile at projsolco.com> writes:

> What about a moveable outdoor shelf, made of reflective material such as
> plywood covered with foil, or shiny metal, placed horizontally at the
> base of a window? 

Sounds nice, but I'd make it a fixed shelf at least 6' above the floor, 
so it can block beam sun into human eyes and bounce it up onto 
a ceiling and shade the lower part of  a window in summertime.

Nick