Abstract

Deciduous trees are very well known for controlling solar gains in buildings, but there is still a lack of information about the real thermal impact they have. This work aims to quantify the shade ef-ficiency of different types of deciduous trees during the hot season for solar gain control in buildings. The trees selected belong to the central valley of Chile which is characterized by hot summers and cold winters. A spectrometer is used for measuring the amount of solar radiation (irradiance) trespassing the trees according to the ASTM G-173-03 standard. Our results indicate that the de-ciduous trees analyzed dissipate an average of 82%. This information will help building designers during the building energy efficiency design phase by representative modelling the solar radiation gains allowed by deciduous trees.