Shady business #1 – overheating, and Camden: we should think about solar gain all year round, with Zoe De Grussa (BBSA)

It's all about shading, overheating, and solar gain with Zoe De Grussa this week. She's the author of that infamous Camden overheating case study that Jeff always references and, at the time of writing, is technical and sustainability consultant at the British Blind and Shutter Association (BBSA).

We cover Camden, but perhaps more interesting is the conversation around the difficulties in modeling shading, and the consequent difficulty in communicating its value to a project.

Despite shading measures being 3-4 times cheaper to install at the point of a building's origination, rather than retrofitting it when there's a problem, it's all too often one of the first things value-engineered out of the specification.

Notes from the show

• Zoe on LinkedIn
• The BBSA website
• The Home Energy Modeling Consultation
• Zoe's infamous academic paper: Overheating Camden Case Study. A London Residential Retrofit Case Study: Evaluating passive mitigation methods of reducing risk to overheating through the use of solar shading combined with night-time ventilation. (You can pay for a version here too, if you want.) 
• A BBSA video of the Camden case study
• Some new research from the Blinds Make Better Campaign, in collaboration with the University of Salford Energy House Labs
•  The Good Homes Alliance shading guide: Shading for Housing Design Guide for a Changing Climate

**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**
We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.

• Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page
• Jeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - [e-mail]; Everything is User Experience
• Subscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)
• Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon Upfront
• Join ACAN
• Join the AECB 
• Join the IGBC
• Check out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women (but not in a patronizing way)

**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

What is Zero Ambitions Podcast?

Zero Ambitions is a consultancy and weekly podcast about sustainability and the built environment.

We find interesting and experienced guests who know what they're talking about, usually to discuss how we navigate the complexity of decarbonisation and sustainability in the built environment and its many related sectors.

The success of the podcast has seen it grow into a consultancy, Zero Ambitions Partners. The consultancy works with blue chip clients, public sector institutions, and niche-market innovators that operate in the built environment, advising about the development and delivery of sustainability strategy and how it should be communicated.

Hosted by Jeff Colley (Passive House Plus), Dan Hyde (Everything is User Experience) and Alex Blondin (Everything is User Experience).