View Full Version : Let's Talk about Solar Screens!
Well, my next door neighbor cut down three trees that gave my house AND my ac units a lot of shade. The house is noticeably warmer now in the afternoon without that shade, and after my a/c scare, I want to do something to mitigate this.
Who has solar screens, and how effective are they? What happens in the Winter? Does my heater have to work harder since I'm not getting the radiant heat through the windows anymore?
I've got a guy coming tomorrow to give a quote, who assures me the solar screen will act as sort of a radiant barrier in the Winter and help keep the heat in the house. That seems a little optimistic.
Thoughts?
Stangkiller
06-02-2019, 11:24am
My neighbor has them and swears by them. I’d have them if my wife didn’t declare that they’re “ugly”. My house faces due west at the end of a street so I get a lot of hot afternoon sun.
Do you have electric heat or something? My gas heaters barely run to keep the house warm in the winter, plus the electric bills in the winter are a third of what they are in the summer. If you can make significant gains in the summer anything lost in the winter should be negligible.
My neighbor has them and swears by them. I’d have them if my wife didn’t declare that they’re “ugly”. My house faces due west at the end of a street so I get a lot of hot afternoon sun.
Do you have electric heat or something? My gas heaters barely run to keep the house warm in the winter, plus the electric bills in the winter are a third of what they are in the summer. If you can make significant gains in the summer anything lost in the winter should be negligible.
I have gas heat, and my gas bill in the coldest winter is maybe $ 80-100 or so, maybe a little higher if we have an Arctic blast. Having moderately higher heating bills in the Winter isn't a deal breaker, I just wanted some independent opinions. The guy coming out tomorrow swears his bills in the Summer AND Winter went down after putting on the screens. Seems optimistic.
I've always thought they were kinda ugly, too, but I see lots of people in my neighborhood have them.
Strats-N-Vettes
06-02-2019, 11:59am
I have solar screens.
I have several double/side-by-side windows.
As the guy was installing then, I could easily feel the heat difference between windows with new screens and windows without.
Installed in the late 90's.
On the south, east, and west side of my house gets blistering south Louisiana sun.
I've re-used the frames he made, and installed new material and rubber screen splines.
20 or so years sun bleached them.
If you are a DIY guy, all the supplies to make the screens yourself are on Amazon...that includes frame making material.
It isn't rocket science.
Your a/c and electric bill will notice the difference.
You guys have winter? :funnier::funnier::funnier:
Also look into the 3m window tint/impact covering. It helps with both the sun and make your glass more impact resistant.
Strats-N-Vettes
06-02-2019, 3:13pm
You guys have winter? :funnier::funnier::funnier:
One time it dropped into the low 30's, stocked up on bread and milk.
I'm a survivor. :yesnod:
Stangkiller
06-02-2019, 3:21pm
One time it dropped into the low 30's, stocked up on bread and milk.
I'm a survivor. :yesnod:
The ice days off from work are incredible down here....so many frozen overpasses and too many overconfident undertrained drivers in large 2wd trucks...makes for really entertaining tv. :rofl:
Also look into the 3m window tint/impact covering. It helps with both the sun and make your glass more impact resistant.
I thought about window tint first, but it's going to be very labor intensive, since my windows are all multi panes in a grid frame, meaning I'd have to cut out a bunch of small rectangle pieces and put them on one at a time just to shade one window.
3M tint in particular doesn't seem to be sold over the counter anyway, you'd have to find a commercial installer to put it up. I'm guessing that's going to be a lot more than I want to spend. I just want to do something to make up for the loss of the shade trees.
It's funny, the neighbor who cut the trees down has already had one of his units fail, needing a new fan, and I had a capacitor fail, all within a week of the trees being removed. I'm convinced that shading the units from the direct sun is the best way to keep them from dying.
I thought about window tint first, but it's going to be very labor intensive, since my windows are all multi panes in a grid frame, meaning I'd have to cut out a bunch of small rectangle pieces and put them on one at a time just to shade one window.
3M tint in particular doesn't seem to be sold over the counter anyway, you'd have to find a commercial installer to put it up. I'm guessing that's going to be a lot more than I want to spend. I just want to do something to make up for the loss of the shade trees.
It's funny, the neighbor who cut the trees down has already had one of his units fail, needing a new fan, and I had a capacitor fail, all within a week of the trees being removed. I'm convinced that shading the units from the direct sun is the best way to keep them from dying.
I asked that question to one of my golf buddies who sells the stuff. The product shrink wraps over most of the separate dividers.
I plan on having him come over for a quote next week.
I asked that question to one of my golf buddies who sells the stuff. The product shrink wraps over most of the separate dividers.
I plan on having him come over for a quote next week.
I'm curious what that will cost, on a per window basis. You can post up some numbers here, or PM me if you want.
Thanks!
:bill_daniels:
Strats-N-Vettes
06-02-2019, 7:34pm
I'm convinced that shading the units from the direct sun is the best way to keep them from dying.
It helps in our areas (Gulf region). :yesnod:
It helps in our areas (Gulf region). :yesnod:
I'm thinking about planting a fast growing shrub to try and at least give some afternoon shade for my units.
JRD77VET
06-02-2019, 7:46pm
We do "black out" shades here at our house. That really makes a difference in keeping things a LOT cooler.
JRD77VET
06-02-2019, 7:47pm
The ice days off from work are incredible down here....so many frozen overpasses and too many overconfident undertrained drivers in large 2wd trucks...makes for really entertaining tv. :rofl:
:D
Strats-N-Vettes
06-02-2019, 8:04pm
I'm thinking about planting a fast growing shrub to try and at least give some afternoon shade for my units.
I had my units put on the north side for all day shade, and kept the evap coils out of the attic.
We built some similar to this for my dads units, his neighbor did the same but made them shaped like wishing wells (internet photo):
Cybercowboy
06-02-2019, 8:45pm
I just put my A/C unit on the north side of the house. And use shades on the south side. That's pretty much my entire strat.
C5SilverBullet
06-03-2019, 8:56am
Very good friend of mine owns a company that makes them. He's making some for my house, so I'll let you know
Very good friend of mine owns a company that makes them. He's making some for my house, so I'll let you know
Sigh. That info would have been more useful BEFORE I put a deposit early this morning on screens for the back and side of the house that face the afternoon Sun.
16 screens (two separate screens for the window with an arch at the top) for $ 840
Update:
Solar screens installed on back and one side of the house, and what a difference. The heat is virtually gone, and the blazing afternoon sun isn't blinding anymore. With the blinds shut, there's virtually no glare on the TV, either. We'll see what effect it has on the electric bill, but it's got to help just a little bit.
I asked that question to one of my golf buddies who sells the stuff. The product shrink wraps over most of the separate dividers.
I plan on having him come over for a quote next week.
Very good friend of mine owns a company that makes them. He's making some for my house, so I'll let you know
Update? :waiting:
JetMechZ16
06-13-2019, 3:14pm
Question. Can you still see out of your windows when these are installed?
Update? :waiting:
Pushed out to next week.
Question. Can you still see out of your windows when these are installed?
Yes, but it isn't quite as clear as it would be without the screen. I mean, yes, yes you can see through them. Also, you can see inside as well. I chose the 70%. There is an 80% that will prevent people from seeing inside, but it blocks airflow for those Fall days when you actually want windows open.
My goal was to block the heat and glare, which this does very well. We'll see how this works in the Winter. The guy who sold them to me says they will work as a sort of radiant barrier to reflect the inside heat from escaping through my single pane windows. I kind of doubt that, but hey, we'll see.
Pushed out to next week.
Very good friend of mine owns a company that makes them. He's making some for my house, so I'll let you know
Update?
:waiting:
mrvette
06-18-2019, 2:50am
I thought I had posted in this thread, but I guess not.....My house here in Florida had a light gray cheep assed shingle roof on it when I bought it 22 years ago, wish I had known what would happen....
one time up there at 1130 am, house facing directly west, and on east side of house, northern Florida, the shingles about took my skin off...got my IR probe from the car hobby, and measured 165f in the MORNING before the 3 pm heat of the day even.....the underlayment was 145f.....attic down at ceiling height for sheetrock/rooms was 105f........I started painting the roof white, and dropped the attic underlayment temps by FORTY degrees, same time of day a week or so later....house is one story, slab, garage on right side of house, uphill and it's south side of course, the HVAC unit is behind/side of the garage, wedged loosely between a fence/gate and a storage shed built on side of the house....
close to 18 years ago, I replaced all the single pane aluminum windoze in the house with windoze that were in stock at Home Despot next door, started with the 5' tall and ~7' wide pix window....white vinyl double glass, gas filled, lo E, with a ~18" casement window on each side, fixed center glass, no grids.....dropped my LR temps by a noticeable amount in the afternoon sun...redid all the rest of the windoze too....total cost ONE thousand bux....did the installs myself of course....
latest project is that the shitty shingles on front of the house, facing the PM sun of course insisted on failing, in spite of the white coatings on them, so I have been putting white metal over top of them, 16 feet long strips 6 of them at 3' wide, and roof peal caps of course....400 bux for the material of course.....plus a roll of tar like tuff paper between it and the shingles.....I feel the temp drop already and it's only been 3 daze.....
when it's bright sun in the afternoon on that metal, I plan on getting a temp reading of the metal, on the ground it was about 90f something, but up there it may hit 120f I suspect.....I will see soon enough.....more interesting would be the temp of the underlayment......
watt pisses me off, is me not having the knowledge/thought to do this 20 years ago, and cut my HVAC bill by some 40%......
:issues:
I thought I had posted in this thread, but I guess not.....My house here in Florida had a light gray cheep assed shingle roof on it when I bought it 22 years ago, wish I had known what would happen....
one time up there at 1130 am, house facing directly west, and on east side of house, northern Florida, the shingles about took my skin off...got my IR probe from the car hobby, and measured 165f in the MORNING before the 3 pm heat of the day even.....the underlayment was 145f.....attic down at ceiling height for sheetrock/rooms was 105f........I started painting the roof white, and dropped the attic underlayment temps by FORTY degrees, same time of day a week or so later....house is one story, slab, garage on right side of house, uphill and it's south side of course, the HVAC unit is behind/side of the garage, wedged loosely between a fence/gate and a storage shed built on side of the house....
close to 18 years ago, I replaced all the single pane aluminum windoze in the house with windoze that were in stock at Home Despot next door, started with the 5' tall and ~7' wide pix window....white vinyl double glass, gas filled, lo E, with a ~18" casement window on each side, fixed center glass, no grids.....dropped my LR temps by a noticeable amount in the afternoon sun...redid all the rest of the windoze too....total cost ONE thousand bux....did the installs myself of course....
latest project is that the shitty shingles on front of the house, facing the PM sun of course insisted on failing, in spite of the white coatings on them, so I have been putting white metal over top of them, 16 feet long strips 6 of them at 3' wide, and roof peal caps of course....400 bux for the material of course.....plus a roll of tar like tuff paper between it and the shingles.....I feel the temp drop already and it's only been 3 daze.....
when it's bright sun in the afternoon on that metal, I plan on getting a temp reading of the metal, on the ground it was about 90f something, but up there it may hit 120f I suspect.....I will see soon enough.....more interesting would be the temp of the underlayment......
watt pisses me off, is me not having the knowledge/thought to do this 20 years ago, and cut my HVAC bill by some 40%......
:issues:
Having a white painted roof would probably be the biggest thing anyone in a hot climate could do to reduce Summer heat in the house, but I don't think my HOA would go for painting my shingles white.
mrvette
06-18-2019, 10:08am
Having a white painted roof would probably be the biggest thing anyone in a hot climate could do to reduce Summer heat in the house, but I don't think my HOA would go for painting my shingles white.
First house the Ex and I had was a row house in a HOA/nazi run community.....
some funny stories there too, BUT never again for any HOA, so we free......
:hurray:
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