My sister-in-law, who is on social security, was in a fix. As I understand it, her apartment living room has a large, 5 x 8 picture window facing west. It has no protection from direct solar gain, at all. Curtains and slat shades could not keep out the heat in the afternoon, which made the room uninhabitable for much of every day. Her limited funds are made more distressed by the enormous electric bills the air conditioning causes in the summer as a result of her cheaply designed apartment's design flaws.
My wife took it upon herself to take a half roll of solar screen left over from our own energy saving make over project of last year, over to her sister's place and taped it directly onto the window molding around that bad boy window. Around sun-down this evening my sister-in-law called to tell us that the heat difference was so reduced that she was forced to turn off the overhead fan she usually had going full speed, during the day, in the living room to help cool that space by circulation. The ceiling fan made that room feel too chilly to keep it going along with the air conditioning! And, oh yeah, she can live in that room, again.
I have long been an advocate for mechanical, deciduous and other shade methods so I won't rant about this topic. Suffice it to say that if one does NOT allow heat into a space in the first place, one need not pay good money to air condition it back out of that space in the second place. If you are interested in information about solar mesh screening, take advantage of the link to an article about the energy savings potentials using shade and solar screening below. There are an extensive number of web pages and articles as well as links, as resources which make it abundantly clear how cost effective a bit of shade can be on ones energy bill, immediately and year after year. At our home our kilowatt-hour comparisons from prior years is steadily and regularly less each year as we continue to retrofit our home with energy reducing measures. Sun screening and shade have paid us back handsomely in the form of significantly lower summer electric bills in spite of higher cost per kilowatt rate changes from utility companies. Check it out.
D/FW Metroplex, pro-active
