Green facades cool urban heat islands

https://news.pro.earth/2023/07/28/kampf-gegen-hitze-im-urbanen-raum/

Green facades act like natural air conditioning systems

Although air conditioning systems provide quick relief on tropical nights and hot days, they require a considerable amount of energy, produce additional waste heat that is blown into the already heated environment and contain refrigerants that are harmful to the climate.

Although air conditioning systems cool the interior, they fuel energy consumption, energy costs and climate change. Natural greenery, on the other hand, absorbs water when it rains, uses it and releases it back into its surroundings through cooling evaporation. They act like an automatic natural air conditioning system and significantly reduce the ambient temperature.

According to scientific calculations, well-designed façade greening can reduce the temperature of the façade surface by 8 to 19 °Celsius. If you compare greened streets with non-greened streets, the heat island effect is reduced by up to 5 °Celsius air temperature with greening," says Georg Bursik, Managing Director of Baumit GmbH.says Georg Bursik, Managing Director of Baumit GmbH.

Façade greening not without sufficient insulation

For a green façade to work, it must first be equipped with suitable and correctly dimensioned insulation . This is a matter of course for new buildings, but buildings that are more than 20 years old should be thermally renovated before greening.

Plants are pulled up with climbing aids to protect the insulation underneath from clinging discs and climbing feet.

"Specialists should always be consulted to ensure that structural requirements, fire protection, correct plant selection at the location, professional installation, maintenance and care of the plants are guaranteed. This is the only way to achieve the desired greening effect," recommends Mathias Hanke.