It is only early May, yet the local television stations, including the NBC affiliate WESH, were forecasting a high yesterday of 94 degrees Fahrenheit. It sounds like it’s going to be a very long and hot summer. If there was one area of the United States that one might ‘assume’ would already be well aware of and extensively using exterior solar blinds on their homes and buildings we figured that it would be the Sunshine State (solar = sunshine, get it? ).
We were very wrong. Let me explain.
During our vacation we met several residents, each of whom had expensive air conditioning bills caused by excessive heat issues in their home or apartment caused by direct UV rays from the sun entering their east, south and west facing windows. Four of the individuals had gone the route of applying film on their windows yet still had issues. One person had recently moved into a new house and was looking for a solution for his large and non-square windows.
In ever case, none of the residents we had spoken with had ever heard of exterior solar blinds. When we showed them the pictures of our temperature gauge before and after applying the EZ Snap solar blinds from our Part 7 article in this series, they were amazed of the impact; who wouldn’t be? They were equally amazed that one could still see outside once these were installed (as shown by the picture below).
They were also surprised how easy they were for the common home owner, like us, to install themselves. Most of them ‘assumed’ that they had to get a contractor or the like to install them.
While exterior solar blinds have proven themselves to us to dramatically reduce the heat build up in a room with east, south and west facing window, and with the EZ Snap product being sufficiently easy for most home or RV owners to install themselves while not reducing the visibility to the outside, it’s the southern States who have the most to gain financially who have the most days of extreme heat in the year.
So, I’m now talking directly to you if you live in any of the following southern states:
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Georgia
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
If you live in any of the above States, you have the most to benefit of anyone in North America. Exterior solar blinds from which ever manufacturer you choose will help you reduce your air conditioning costs the most. We happen to like EZ Snap exterior solar blinds as that is what we have installed on our own home.
I think you owe it to your self to at least investigate their potential for yourself. And, of course, by reducing your air conditioning usage you also help the environment by reducing your ongoing consumption of non-renewable resources if your home’s electricity is supplied by a coal, nuclear or natural gas powered generation station.
To continue with the next article in this series, simply select this link to Part 10.
8 responses so far ↓
1 ole joyful/Ed Baker // Jun 5, 2008 at 4:49 am
Came from Gardenweb, Dan’s message about getting deferred payment deferred dueto late delivery, sought website he gave for email. Amazed to find, when I clicked on Energy Audit? … to find couple in my nearby city, and connectors to this area.
Thanks.
ole joyful/Ed
2 Dan // Jun 5, 2008 at 11:02 am
Hi Ed,
It certainly is a small world, isn’t it?
I’m glad you like our site, it’s articles and pictures.
We hope it helps you and others espeically to do the little and sometimes not so little things to reduce the home’s energy usage and thereby the comsumption of non-renewable resources in the home.
Dan
3 Skip // Oct 22, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Hello! Just happened across your website doing searches on solar screening. I live in Central Florida and installed film on my windows about 6 years ago. For 2-3 years, we noticed significant reduction in heat penetration, but the film began to deteriorate and lose its effectiveness. Now the film is basically ineffective. So I am looking at solar shades, mostly the framed variety. I happened onto your website and noticed the EZ Snap product and was intrigued because I am a bigtime DIY’er. I have 2 questions/concerns I am hoping you can answer now that you have had your EZ Snap installs on for a while.
1. I live on a corner lot, ranch home and the windows I would screen are visible from the sidewalk. Without a frame, do the screens look “finished”? In other words, would you put these screens on your front windows where guests/visitors/passerbys would see them?
2. Given that you cut them to size, do the cut ends fray at all?
Thank you very much for a great website!!!
Skip Hosler
Orlando, FL
4 Dan // Oct 22, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Hi Skip,
From my perspective they look no different from those which are custom exterior solar screens.
If you go through the different articles in our series of our purchase and instalation of this product, you can see how they look.
http://dailyhomerenotips.com/2008/12/26/energy-conservation-project-listing-ez-snap-exterior-solar-blinds/
Personally I would have no issue with installing solar screens on our front windows. If you are not sure, you could order a sufficiently small quantity to install on one of your windows as an astetic ‘trial’.
As far as the ends fraying, we have had ours up for about 18 months and so far no fraying, including being left up throughout the winter up here (the northern part of North America).
I hope that helps,
Dan
5 Marie // May 15, 2010 at 1:02 pm
I’ve just moved to a small one-bedroom retirement apartment. It has two large windows and a balcony door and, since I first saw the apartment in December, I wondered how much light I would get. Well, the answer is LOTS. The windows face north-west and a large park; lovely view, but the afternoon sun is blinding. Temp inside on even a partially sunny day is several degrees more than outside, and even more from afternoons to sunset. My computer sits right in front of the living-room window; can’t use it during that time. Question: how much view and light would I lose with the shades installed? Also, I see from your photos that you have inside shades; do you use them with the outside shades? Would the outside shades cut enough glare for computer use? I am on a very tight budget; I cannot afford to make a mistake — it’s either the outside shades or aluminum blinds. Any comments, ideas, suggestions would be most welcome.
6 Dan // May 15, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Hi Marie,
Aren’t we all on a tight budget.
As far as ‘how much view and light would I lose…’, the answer in part depends on your eye sight. Let me explain.
My wife as we have gotten more ‘mature’ has started to use sun glasses most of the time when she drives….even when it is cloudy. I rarely use sunglasses; in fact, I just returned from a week in Florida when it was sunny and 90 degrees F most of the days and never used sun glasses.
Since we installed these exterior solar shades now more than 2 years ago on our large due south facing windows I have never had to pull the interior blinds down. My wife, on the other hand, has started to pull the interior blinds down every now and again ‘because the sun hurts her eyes’ when she never used to do so.
As far as being on a tight buget you can return the EZ Snap product if you do not cut them. So, you could get a friend to hold then on the outside of your window and then you go inside to see the effect for yourself. Their cost is only about $3 per square foot, much less expensive than any custom blind, including aluminum blinds.
As far as the heat, remember that it is better to prevent the sun’s UV rays from entering the house through the window rather than deflect them after they have passed through the window. These are exterior blinds, they go on the outside of the window so they are more effective at preventing excessive heat build up inside the room than interior blinds.
I hope that helps,
Dan
7 Marie // May 15, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Hey Dan,
Yes, this does help. I think I’ll order and test before I cut.
One more question: what did you use to clean the window frame? Mine are aluminum (brown, ugly and old). I’ll be using the stick-ons because I can’t make holes — this is a rented unit.
Thanks!
8 Dan // May 15, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Hi Marie,
It depends.
If you are ordering the ’standard’ kit, you can use anything you want because the standard kit uses screws which make holes into the window frame.
However, if you order the type of adhesive anchors used on RV’s, which is what we used, then you do need to ensure that the metal window frames are clean from dirt, grease, etc.
I used a product called Zep, All Purpose Cleaner and Degreaser from Home Depot. As well, you will need to make sure that the paint on the frames are not pealing; if they are, you need to sand the areas where the you will be applying the adhesive anchors.
Dan
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