Lanx
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Home Improvement
- Thread starter Picasso3
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Falstaff
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Anyone have recommendations for how to cool a room against sunlight? My office is west facing and I am dreading another summer of 8 hours of direct sunlight.
New windows are the best option but not in the budget for this year, plus my wife would be pissed if I just did my office window. Was thinking of something like this + blackout curtains maybe.
Curious if anyone has used something similar.
Also sucks on the storm door, I'm in the market for a new one as my dog ran through and destroyed my screen insert and Larsen doesn't make my model anymore.
New windows are the best option but not in the budget for this year, plus my wife would be pissed if I just did my office window. Was thinking of something like this + blackout curtains maybe.
Curious if anyone has used something similar.
Also sucks on the storm door, I'm in the market for a new one as my dog ran through and destroyed my screen insert and Larsen doesn't make my model anymore.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Palum
what Suineg set it to
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I think shades will handle a lot. I don't think the film will do anything, tbh you need actual ceramic tint if you want serious UV reductions. Like made by 3M not available at Lowe's. I tried that Gila stuff years ago and wasn't really impressed. Do you have solid AC in the room or also air issue?
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Control
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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I use something like this in my sunroom during the summer. Not exactly the same, but close. I think mine is 3", and it's basically like deleting the window. Sucks that I can't see out of the window when they're up, but it makes a massive difference in the temperature.
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Captain Suave
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
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Shades will need to be reflective on the window side. Typical blackout shades absorb UV in sunlight and radiate it into the room as heat, making very little difference on net.
The films can actually be quite effective for the solar radiation portion of energy intrusion, reducing by as much as 75%. Still have to keep in mind that direct radiation is only about 2/3 the total energy transfer, with the remaining third being convection and conduction. You basically need a window replacement to address those, short of fixing obvious sealing failures.
(I just replaced all my windows last fall, did shit-tons of research on this. Cost $$$ to go from single pane to double pane low-E, but made a huuuuuuge difference in the interior climate.)
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Haus
I am Big Balls!
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Yeah, probably the easiest "fix" will be to drop on a film on the windows.
Something like this :
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BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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If you can get it out of the door you can get the screen replaced. I just had 2 of them done at the local glass shop. $15 each.
Fucker
Log Wizard
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I had a home office in the top floor of my house that was situated in a desert. It got plenty hot in there; the office windows faced the brightest, hottest part of the sun.
I put reflective window tint on all the upstairs windows that faced the sun. I also had Venetian blinds, dark out curtains. Exterior, I had these metal awning things put on, and angled them to provide shade. Worked really well all put together. Not my house, but the type and effect very similar:
You also need to do the other rooms that face the midday sun.
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Haus
I am Big Balls!
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Hurm, I have a dilemma.
I have an area next to my garage that I decided to drop pavers on as a home for my smoker and outdoor prep table. It's a dirt area that runs along the driveway. I picked up some 24"x16" paver slabs (as I didn't want to deal with single brick style laying). Some gravel and sand for underlayment. Pavers are 2" thick, so I figured go 4" down, spread and tamp some gravel and sand to level at 2" and put on pavers to make it level with the surrounding driveway and lawn. (Yes, I know that's being lazy and I should probably go 6" down, but still)
I start clearing the area today and make a first pass over it with a tiller attachment on my Ryobi "expand it" 40v lawn tool. I discover two annoying things.
The garage slab extends out around 8" , and was covered by 1" of soil. The fence defining this area from the rest of the back yard has fence posts they apparently didn't plan on going anywhere and have concrete footings 1" under ground level extending 4-6" out from the posts.
Now it looks like the "easy" way is to lower the ground around them, put in sand/gravel. But then have the pavers essentially lay at ground level which will make a 2" ledge around the edge just begging to trip my fat ass up carrying a big tray of beef to the smoker.
Other options are to just leave those areas without pavers over them and have a border or cut the pavers around the areas where I can't go down at least 2".... hurm.... this is my conundrum of the week.
I have an area next to my garage that I decided to drop pavers on as a home for my smoker and outdoor prep table. It's a dirt area that runs along the driveway. I picked up some 24"x16" paver slabs (as I didn't want to deal with single brick style laying). Some gravel and sand for underlayment. Pavers are 2" thick, so I figured go 4" down, spread and tamp some gravel and sand to level at 2" and put on pavers to make it level with the surrounding driveway and lawn. (Yes, I know that's being lazy and I should probably go 6" down, but still)
I start clearing the area today and make a first pass over it with a tiller attachment on my Ryobi "expand it" 40v lawn tool. I discover two annoying things.
The garage slab extends out around 8" , and was covered by 1" of soil. The fence defining this area from the rest of the back yard has fence posts they apparently didn't plan on going anywhere and have concrete footings 1" under ground level extending 4-6" out from the posts.
Now it looks like the "easy" way is to lower the ground around them, put in sand/gravel. But then have the pavers essentially lay at ground level which will make a 2" ledge around the edge just begging to trip my fat ass up carrying a big tray of beef to the smoker.
Other options are to just leave those areas without pavers over them and have a border or cut the pavers around the areas where I can't go down at least 2".... hurm.... this is my conundrum of the week.
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Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Do it right. If you fuck it up you have to rip everything out to do it over, rather than just a bit more work up front.
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Goatface
Avatar of War Slayer
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Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Yea, really the two issues are the actual heating of the sun, and the cooling loss through air contact with the window. I have cellular shades which are pretty good since they have air gaps built in (unlike mini blinds) so it does a great job of adding a third 'pane' essentially. Giant curtains that cover the casing well enough will do the same thing. They won't do anything about the sun on the window though.
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Haus
I am Big Balls!
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For "sun on window" the only real options are reflect the light back out, or don't let the light ever get in. So that would be reflective film on the glass, or shades/shutters on the outside of the window you could close.
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Palum
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The thing is windows are a compromise by design. You get sunlight and can see outside at the cost of poorer insulation. So it's always 'better' from an HVAC standpoint to board them up or cover them in mylar or not have them in the first place. Question is what works aesthetically and what gets you the outcome you want. For me, I did not want limo tint windows or whatever, so I accepted the HVAC inefficiency and relied on shades when it was bad. I would also consider the high quality ceramic tint film that has very little visual impact.
Captain Suave
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
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About 55% of the energy in sunlight is UV and IR that we can't see. If you can block/reflect those and allow visible light to bypass that's a huge energy benefit with very little cost to aesthetics. As Haus says, this has to be done outside the window otherwise you just generate heat inside.
Modern multi-pane low-e windows are quite good at this, and block about 85% of UV/IR at the cost of ~25% of visible light, which you basically need instruments to detect. We don't notice the difference because the human iris is extremely good at moderating intensity, but there's already a >100x variance in the amount of light you get in direct full sun compared to an indoor environment. 25% doesn't register unless you really try.
Modern multi-pane low-e windows are quite good at this, and block about 85% of UV/IR at the cost of ~25% of visible light, which you basically need instruments to detect. We don't notice the difference because the human iris is extremely good at moderating intensity, but there's already a >100x variance in the amount of light you get in direct full sun compared to an indoor environment. 25% doesn't register unless you really try.
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Haus
I am Big Balls!
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As
Captain Suave
just mentioned. What you really want is a UV/IR barrier on the OUTSIDE of the window. (You can use them on the inside, but then the glass itself still gets heated up, reducing effectiveness). This is more expensive than the darker films but can be had... An example : https://www.amazon.com/Snapguard-Solutions-Premium-Superior-Protection/dp/B07VTDDPRQ?sr=8-16And yeah, when I had our patio greenhouse converted into a proper patio sunroom it involved all new windows. (There are pics in this thread from a long time ago of it, if only the search feature worked. heh) I was ASTOUNDED at how well the new e-rated window panes/sliding glass doors are at controlling temp. We barely have to worry about climate control on the patio room, and it's on the south side of the house.
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Palum
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I just have to say I'm continually amazed by modern paint technology. The family room area I used an airless to spray the ceiling but was unhappy with the time value just from a standpoint of cleanup and masking vs actual paint time. I can see it would definitely be worth it if you were doing very large areas or multiple rooms/entire floor of the same color at the same time, but for me doing each room top to bottom a time it wasn't. Put the first coat in the office now using rollers, and it came out great. Much smoother than I thought it would be.