How Tension Fabric Buildings Excel in Extreme Heat
Part of what makes fabric buildings such great alternatives to brick-and-mortar buildings is that they can stand up to extreme weather events like snow and rain. However, not all job sites need protection from this weather; heat can be a serious danger when working outdoors. For many jobsite owners and managers, the real questions are if tension fabric buildings also excel in extreme heat and can protect equipment, products, and crew members.
Open-Air Models Support Natural Cooling
Cooling a building can be difficult and expensive. Open-air fabric structures allow the natural breeze to flow through the building while protecting the area from sunlight. The shade can make areas underneath it feel as much as 15 degrees cooler than the actual temperature—fabric buildings act as large umbrellas. By providing shade and allowing the breeze to flow freely, fabric structures can stay cool naturally to a comfortable temperature.
PVC Fabric Provides Excellent Sun Protection
At Big Top Manufacturing, we craft our fabric roofing material out of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), offering excellent sun protection to everything underneath. Our structures block up to 99.95 percent of UV-A and UV-B rays. In the Ultra Violet Protection Factor (UPF), our buildings offer a UPF rating of 50+. Only a small fraction of sunlight breaks through the fabric to reach your skin.
Roofing Material Offers High Solar Reflectance
Solar reflectivity (SR) is a material’s ability to reflect sunlight away from its surface and helps us determine how well a roof can reflect sunlight. SR ranges from zero (absorbing all radiation) to one (reflecting all radiation). The lighter the color, the better it reflects sunlight. Most of our structures are a light cream or white color, which falls at a range of 0.63–0.65 on the reflectivity scale. PVC fabric offers an SRI rating of about 0.88 on its own.
Given all these factors, it’s easy to see how tension fabric buildings excel in extreme heat. If you’re looking for a fabric structure with these heat protection benefits and more storage space, we’ve got you covered. At Big Top Manufacturing, we sell shipping container shade structures so you can protect your crew and store your equipment all in one space.
