Desperados Under The Eaves

I couldn’t help the nod to the late, great Warren Zevon with the title of this Blog entry. Unfortunately what follows is a little more prosaic than the musings of an alcoholic rock star at one his lowest moments holed up in a Hollywood motel with no money to pay the bill.

Eaves are not included in the base price of the major project builders. This is probably to keep the base price as low as possible. However, it must also be said that eaves may be a little unfashionable in some quarters.

So what is the value of eaves ?


Well apart from providing refuge from the rain when one is outside, they can also play a key role in keeping energy costs down. Direct sun can generate the same heat as a single bar radiator over each square metre of a surface. Shading windows is the best way to reduce the impact of the sun, as glass is usually the greatest source of heat entering a house. 

The heat is then trapped inside the house due to the glasshouse effect. The glass house effect occurs because the radiant heat from the sun passes through glass and is absorbed by the surfaces inside, which then re-radiate it. Re-radiated heat has a longer wavelength and cannot pass back out through the glass as easily. This trapping of radiant heat is desirable in winter but must be avoided in summer.

Eaves are probably the cost effective method of managing the effects of the sun on the northern side of a house. They will shade the windows from the sun when it is higher in the sky during the summer. Conversely during the winter the sun is able to shine directly on the windows because is lower in the sky and not blocked by the eaves.