[eigenspace]

The rapid buildout of solar, and the rise of efficient air cons for electric home heating certainly makes it seem like a much less wasteful technology than before.

I still think though that people are severly underestimating the effectiveness of relative simple, low-tech options like awnings though.

[DanielHB]

I live in sweden and I am baffled by how uncommon awnings are. In my home country window shutters that also work as yawnings are quite common, especially in places without AC.

My partner was downright insulted when I suggested getting some blackout curtains to reflect sunlight back outside when the sun is hitting our living room. I eventually won that battle after the first summer.

[stavros]

You can also get UV-absorbing film for the windows, though it'll make things worse in the winter.

[pjerem]

> underestimating the effectiveness of relative simple, low-tech options like awnings though.

I mean, I'm currently in France, with 30°C (86°F) in my bedroom, do you really think that our shutters are opened ? At some point, sunlight is not even the issue. For the night to come, like the previous night, predictions are that we will have 35°C (95F) at midnight. I'm not even sure it was this hot when I was at Las Vegas eleven years ago. Las Vegas which is in the middle a of desert.

We are way past the awnings and we already have shutters and both of them are useless when the air itself is like a air dryer.

[DanielHB]

Awnings are significantly better than shutters, but they at most mitigate the heat and the temperature range they make the ambient confortable is quite limited.

[pjerem]

I guess there is a cultural difference on the word here and I should have be more precise.

In France, shutters aren't like most American ones, here we mostly use either plain wood with no gap for light (old houses) or for most of the recent houses, we use rolling shutters that let 0% of light (and therefore, 0% of radiative energy from the sun) get to the window and will make the room entirely black. Also, most modern rolling shutters are white by default so they are pretty reflective.

In the current situation, it's the air temperature that fuck us by not getting down at night and so our (concrete) buildings accumulate the heat even at night.

[DanielHB]

An awning protrudes out of the window so airflow can still pass and light still gets into the room (just not direct light).

Even if the shutters are wood and white when sun hits them they will radiate some heat into the indoors. But of course shutters are still better than letting the sun hit your floor directly.

[eigenspace]

I didn't say anything about shutters, I said awnings. It's a testament to how much our society has forgotten about building effective homes that people think shutters are just as effective as awnings.

That said, yes, if possible, you should be installing an AC unit as well (and the awning will help make the AC unit more efficient.