The present study examines the convective heat transfer around equally spaced heated, horizontal, and rotateable louvers that are adjacent to a heated vertical and warmer-than-ambient isothermal surface. Physically, the system represents an irradiated Venetian blind adjacent to the indoor surface of a window. The analysis represents an important component of new shaded window models that can determine the benefits of shading devices in reducing building cooling loads. Detailed heat transfer results were obtained using a steady, laminar, two-dimensional, conjugate conduction/convection finite element model for a range of Raleigh numbers, heating levels, and blind placements. Convective heat transfer coefficients were determined for input into a thermal resistance model of the system. Results for additional blind placements and slat angles are in progress ongoing. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.