Wherever you live, there is likely a period of the year that tends to be warmer or cooler than others. Summer or winter can be brutal in your steel building if you haven’t prepared the building for the inevitable temperature changes. Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do to help with maintaining heat in the cold or keeping cool on those hot days, and Simpson Steel has options for you.
Whether it be the color of your roof, adding an accessory to the building, or incorporating a steel building HVAC system, Simpson Steel has the solution. We’ve compiled a few things you can do to help keep your building cooler or warmer.
Insulation
Adding insulation to your building will bring the building up to current energy efficiency codes. If you’re designing a new building, make sure your insulation meets the minimum suggested R-Value for your location. Good insulation helps keep heat out during the summer and helps keep heat in during the winter. Most heat gain and loss will occur through the attic or top of the roof so make the roof insulation a priority for your steel building. Simpson Steel Building Company provides quality insulation that creates one of the best vapor barriers on the market.
Ventilation and Ridge Vents
Good ventilation is another way to keep temperatures in your metal building at the right level. Insulation and roof ventilation really go hand in hand. Natural ventilation is an obvious helper – a common example is using a programmable thermostat that will keep the A/C from cycling at night while windows are open and then close the windows in the morning to keep the cool air in. This should reduce the amount of time your cooling system needs to operate.
Whether it be heat activated models or solar powered units or anything in between, there are plenty of energy efficient ventilation systems to choose from. Simpson Steel Building Company recommends adding a continuous ridge vent to the roof of your building. Ridge ventilators can help easily move fresh air throughout your steel building, which also improves the buildings inside air quality. During warmer months, they release heat in the steel building naturally. When winter comes, having a ridge vent will help control condensation and moisture issues.
Overhangs or Lean-To’s
Adding anything that provides some kind of shade to your steel building will also help with heat issues inside your steel building. Whether that be planning landscaping and tree’s around your building for shade, or adding lean-to’s or overhangs onto the building, shading the building will reduce the amount of sun that transfers from exterior walls and windows to the interior of your home.
Simpson Steel Building Company offers the option of adding 18” overhangs to the eave sides or gable ends of your buildings. This should provide extra shading from the sun while also helping prevent water damage by keeping rain off the sides of the building. If you want to take it one step further, add a lean-to or gable extension to your metal building. This should provide a maximum amount of shade to one side of the steel building to help with heat or cold issues.
Cool-Colored Roof
Using the wrong roofing materials can cause major heat issues as some materials can heat up to as high as 190 degrees Fahrenheit during hot days. Insulation and ventilation on the roof may not help enough to combat this type of heat. You can help eliminate even more of this solar heat gain by installing a cooler metal roof on your steel building. Use a lighter color that has reflective coatings that send a large percentage of the suns UV rays back into the atmosphere and out of your metal building. Simpson Steel Building Company offers several lighter colors for your roof that will help with temperature management.
HVAC Systems
Adding any kind of air conditioning or HVAC system to your steel building is the more obvious means of keeping things cool in summer or warm in winter. Whether you are wanting to add an HVAC system to provide climate control for your entire garage, workshop or home, or just to your office space in a hybrid warehouse and office structure, you can plan and layout your own for part or all of your steel building kit. If you are uncertain that the layout of your desired HVAC system will work with Simpson Steel Buildings steel truss kits, please contact us to discuss!
While steel building HVAC is the primary means of helping to keep things cool or warm, remember there are plenty of other basic design elements such as the items listed above that can also be used to help manage climate and air circulation in your steel building! Simpson Steel Building Company would love to help you decide what is best for your project – please contact us today to learn more.
