Daily Home Renovation Tips

Yesterday we returned from vacationing in Central Florida; Orlando to be more precise. And, what we encountered in the area surrounding Walt Disney World simply amazed me. And, no, I am not taking about Mickey.

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.