[3eb7988a1663]

I live in SoCal and am continually shaking my head at the architecture. So my floor-to-ceiling glass buildings in a climate known for sunny weather. So much extra air-conditioning will be spent to cool those buildings compared to if they had been built more reflective.

[euroderf]

I'd try hanging long sheets of aluminum foil in too-large windows. I imagine someone in academia has studied this.

[sdeframond]

That works. A lot of people do that in their home when they have no other choice (renting the place, typically).

It'd be better to block the sun before it hits the window though, so that the window itself does not get hot and heat the inside.

Edit: people generally use emergency blankets, fyi. You can stick them to the glass with water.

[Timon3]

I've read a few times now that applying reflective foil to the inside using water can lead to broken windows - though I can't remember any linking to statistics or studies, so it could also be false or very rare.

[sdeframond]

I didn't know! Google agrees with you so it must be true.

[rrrrrrrrrrrryan]

Also windows that go down to the floor has been considered bad architecture for decades.

Wall-to-wall windows are great.

Floor-to-ceiling windows are stunning when you walk into an empty place that you're thinking about buying or renting, but when you're actually living there, windows that go down to the floor create a few feet of dead space. You can't really put any furniture there without feeling guilty about blocking the view you're paying for, and it's uncomfortable to walk up to the edge and look down - it makes you feel uneasy like you're standing on a cliff with your toes at the edge. It's much better for the window to end around waist high.

They're psychologically fine if both the floor and the ceiling extend beyond the window (e.g. it's on the ground floor, and the roof overhangs), but when they're used on every floor in a high rise apartment building, killing limited square footage and driving up energy bills, it's absolute madness.

[Danox]

Obviously, Mediterranean, Spanish or Adobe type buildings would have been better, and not the northern European style of architecture.