Preston weather has sharpened demand for ways to shade homes after the Met Office issued a rare red weather warning this week. Homeowners and renters are turning to fixes that fit older buildings, from clip-on awnings to improvised window coverings, as heat builds faster behind glass and brick.
At the centre of that shift is Aimée Daniels, founder of Shaded, whose £89 mini awning clips to sash window frames from the inside. Daniels said, “It was just brutal,” about her west-facing London flat during the 2022 heatwave, and added, “I was looking at my windows and thinking, ‘Why isn’t there something that you don’t have to drill in from the outside?’.”
Shaded and Brise Soleil UK
Daniels designed the awning to be detachable and renter-friendly, with versions that adjust to different window widths. Sales of Shaded’s awnings have shot up this week, suggesting that the same demand that drove interest in emergency fixes is also pulling buyers toward products they can keep using after the heat eases.
Marc Alabaster, owner of Brise Soleil UK, said his own interest in external shading began after a new set of glass doors was installed at his West Sussex home eight years ago. “The kitchen was 40-plus degrees,” he said, describing how afternoon sun magnified the heat indoors.
Met Office heat response
Alabaster said he later saw an apartment building in Spain wrapped in louvre-like rows of angled fins or blades that shaded the external walls against the sun. “I was like, ‘that’s fantastic’,” he said. “It’s French for sun-breaker.”
Ruth Shilston, global discipline lead at Mott MacDonald, said, “The UK needs sustained investment in infrastructure and public spaces so that our buildings, transport systems and cities are designed to cope with future heat.” Her point goes beyond individual homes: the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers says most UK homes do not have external shading, leaving older properties especially exposed when temperatures rise.
England overheating rules
Some people this week used cardboard, reflective materials or yoghurt on their windows after the warning. Those stopgap fixes sit alongside more permanent products already on the market, including Shaded’s detachable awning and outdoor shading systems from Brise Soleil UK and Shade Solutions.
Dorset-based Kemp Sails moved into Shade Solutions after its owners realised some years ago that similar materials were used in Australia to cast shade outdoors. Owain Peters, the general manager, said, “We thought, ‘we’ve got loads of expert sewing machinists and large sewing machines – let’s apply that’,” and added, “It’s been a runaway success.” New regulations on overheating in new residential buildings came into force in England in 2022, but the bigger pressure remains on existing homes, schools, hospitals and care homes that must adapt room by room before the next heatwave arrives.
