Solar Wind Chimes and Garden Cooling Strategies
Making your garden sun-dappled but “cool” does not need rocket science—it is often a matter of clever planning and incorporation of advanced yet environment friendly technologies, such as solar wind chimes. A cool, breezy garden is not only breathtaking to look at, but they also serve their purpose in providing a calm, quiet, relaxing space where you can spend some “me” time after a grueling day at work. They are also perfect for one of those fun weekends spent in unforgettable family bonding moments.
Planning Vertically
Vertical planning or vertical gardening simply means incorporating vertical structures in your garden upon which certain plants or vines can crawl down. There are various vertical structures you can build, such as poles, trellises, and frames. Even the garden’s walls can serve a good purpose. You do not need to use expensive material—with a little creativity and a small budget, you can use such materials as bamboo or any other cheap wood. Providing vertical structures for vines is one of the best and easy ways to cool down an outdoor living space; you can also settle the aesthetic aspect, as certain vines are of the blooming variety and provide an explosion of colors and scents when the season comes.
Aside from the aesthetic and temperature-related benefits of vertical gardening, there is also the one that benefits the environment: its ability to stop soil erosion in its tracks. In large gardens where there is a certain degree of slope (this is true for homes built on hills), a carefully and smartly planned succession of vertical structures not only break or prevent soil erosion, but they can also provide an interesting vista.
If you cannot build vertical structures, keep in mind that the single major characteristic of vines is their propensity to crawl downwards—this means you can plant them in pots, place them on top of the garden’s walls, and they will crawl out and down.
Awnings
Not to forget, awnings are an excellent yet underutilized means of cooling down a living space. You commonly find them over doorways and windows, and sometimes, they are designed to fold out to create an extra shaded outdoor space on demand. If you can afford it, use retractable awnings so that you can extend their depending on the season or time of the day. A well-designed awning, especially when painted with bright colors (white) that deflect the sun’s rays, can provide a cool relaxing place outdoors that works exceptionally well with your vertical garden.
Awnings are not only useful for outdoor purposes, but the cool shade they produce can also effectively lower your house’s indoor temperature and, consequently, your electricity bills. In fact, according to a report by no less than the American Society of Heating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), awnings can reduce the interior heat in homes by more than 70% as they prevent direct sunlight from reaching your home’s interior. So not only do they help in your cooling down efforts, they can also protect your furniture from direct sun damage. Moreover, thanks to the latest technologies, there are now various available variations of the traditional awning—there are portable ones that can be installed wherever you need them and are sold online. There are also advanced window coating products that you can have installed on your glass windows to prevent the sun’s damaging UV rays to do their nasty work on your interior furniture, while still keeping the temperature comfortably low.
Eco-friendly Night-time Illumination
A great idea for providing exotic yet environment friendly illumination for your garden is the use of solar wind chimes. Such wind chimes are just like normal wind chimes in the sense that they produce melodious, relaxing music as the breeze caresses them, but they also incorporate solar panel technology that allows them to gather energy during the day (which can be efficiently done given that your garden is designed to take in a fair amount of sunlight) and then to provide gorgeous illumination at night via LED lights—at virtually no electricity cost! A great way to use such wind chimes is by installing them along roof-less, vine-covered patios.
Moreover, wind chimes also contribute to the cooling effect as the music they produce tends to decrease one’s sense of heat in the atmosphere. Although perhaps this maybe more psychological than anything else, nevertheless, if you have done the cooling efforts correctly, then the music from the chimes merely further enhance the pleasant ambiance.
