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Some people decided awnings are unattractive so now every HOA and rental bans them. And the rest of us have to suffer because the pretty people who can afford to pay that A/C bill run our entire society.
This is the entirety of what's wrong with the US in a microcosm. The majority being forced to live under rules made by people that aren't affected by them.
No offense but they are also fucking ugly
There's a house near me who has disgusting cheap awnings on their house. I want them so badly to just take them down. They have all kinds of trees casting shade on their house anyway.
Cool, thanks for pointing those out. I really need something like that
It sure why you’re being downvoted, it’s is unfortunately true. Makes your house look like a diner most of the time…
Most suburban houses he was showing in the video look hideous and not because of awnings.
As the video points out, those are cool but block the view, and still hear up the room.
Since the video's point is that awnings are too unattractive for people to use them, then hot damn is that so much worse. Solid metal gates - for when you want your house to look like a convenience store in a bad neighborhood when riots are about to start.
I was watching this earlier and got about halfway through before the power went out. I spent the next 90 minutes before it came back on trying to imagine a style of these that would look good on the south side of my house.
I didn't come up with anything that my wife would let me install so I guess I'm going to stick with my plan of automated shades or drapes.
I just got awnings installed two months ago on the windows that get sun for most of the day. It dropped the temps in those rooms by almost 8 degrees Celsius on hot days. The AC even runs less during the day now.
They're simple retractable awnings that a local guy installed for me. I used to hate the idea of awnings, but the thought about IR heat getting trapped clicked with me recently and suddenly the idea of awnings seemed brilliant.
Better idea. They're called trees.
As a guy who does concrete. Trees close to your house love to drive roots through your foundation. Trees are great but can really do some damage. Especially where I live. Ground water is about 80' or deeper. The tree roots here stay shallow and spread out everywhere.
one of our neighbors has a 60-ish foot tall spruce about 14' from his house. There's a betting pool on whether it'll squish his place or one of his neighbors in the next big wind storm.
Are you going to elaborate on why it's better or did you just want to be a contrarian?
https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/using-trees-and-vegetation-reduce-heat-islands
https://news.wisc.edu/study-suggests-trees-are-crucial-to-the-future-of-our-cities/
Trees create a cooling effect past shading the area. It's a combination of shade and evaporative cooling.
Those links discuss cooling outdoor spaces. They don't compete with awnings for keeping sunlight from warming up your house unless you plant them close enough to do so and come with a ton of downsides (roof damage, leaves clogging gutters, roots breaking pipes and foundation)...not to mention how long it takes a tree to grow tall enough to provide that sort of shade
Trees will shade far more surface area than just a window. I've got 9 around my house. They block direct sun through the windows all summer. While not blocking any light in the winter. They also keep the siding and sections of the roof cool.
Is it not enough that trees look better?
IDK why you have to choose one or the other, though.
Why would that be enough when we're talking keeping a house cool?
I am VERY pro-tree. A lack of trees is why I moved (and why I decided against buying a few homes).... But trees are not a "better idea" for this purpose so it was a useless statement to make
Shade?
Honestly, I kinda hate the big tree in our front yard. It has these tiny leaves and every fall we have to clean the roof and gutters repeatedly until it finally drops everything, because those stupid leaves stick to everything and clog not just the gutters but the downpipes. This tree has caused our basement to flood during fall because one storm can simultaneously blow off a ton of leaves, instantly clogging the gutter, and then pour rain down the front of the house. We spent hundreds of dollars last year on a new gutter solution for 6ft of gutter. You read that right. Six feet of gutter cost us about $450, and they STILL wouldn't guarantee it would fix the problem because of the stupid tree.
We keep the tree trimmed and healthy, but every time the trimmers come out I dream about telling him to cut the stupid thing down. Awnings would be easier -_-
Our house has a pretty big roof overhang, and it definitely does keep things cooler.
The downside is that the house is pretty dim.
I’ve been planning for the last year some eco home upgrades, and awnings on the south facing windows are high on the list. With so many possible upgrades and so little money it’s difficult to know what to do first.
Eccentric midwestern home owner has strong opinions about home designs, news at 11. I love his channel, did you see his trilogy about oil lamps?
Yes and his dish washer video was awesome as well. Agreed great channel.
All 3 dish washer videos.
“Fun fact: the Sun is extremely powerful.”
Bahahahaha! I like this guy.
Make them better looking and push-button retractable from inside, and people will want them.
EDIT
At 16:40 he suggests high tech awnings that automatically unfurl and retract to provide the ideal amount of shade on each day of the year. Seems like a nearly perfect solution to me
I haven't watched the video yet, but vernacular architecture back in the day commonly set shading elements like awnings at the right height/angle such that during midday in the winter, sunlight would still directly go through windows and hit interior floors and walls. During summer, the angle of the sun would be high enough that direct sunlight could not reach windows.
You can get pretty far with just those passive designs. There are tools to help you find the dimensions you'd need based on where you live without having to do any calculations yourself.
While that may be true, it doesn't make people want them any more than they currently do. People want to have their full window view available whenever they want it. This means it needs to be retractable and extendable at the push of a button. And once you have that, it's easy and helpful for it to also be automated
Speak for yourself, I'd rather not have the sun baking me. We don't have central A/C where I live and we're not allowed awnings of any kind. So it's super heavy curtains. I'd jump for any kind of awnings in a second.
I don't think the look good.
And literally never thought about it more than that.
So people may not really know what they're for, just that they're "old-fashioned". Not sure how to make them trendy but that seems to be a deciding factor in how people invest in their homes. Maybe sell them with "live laugh love" printed on the front with wine bottles dangling from the corners?
Make them out of eco friendly bamboo slats and 36-in long sections of galvanized square steel, sell it flat packed on Amazon and people will go crazy for it
They definitely make a house look dated. I doubt this would pass the wife test for most people. I know my wife wouldn't like them, and we're all about saving energy.
Same here. But make it with like jute and bamboo with a thin gold trim and she would buy 2
Just start doing it and brag about your electric bill going down. Eventually others will do the same for the same reason. Then it becomes a trend for being a thing people are doing.
That which is old is new again.
I'm Suprised people don't just paint everything white in really hot countries. I've always felt that would probably help a lot.
True it would probably look bad a lot quicker.
Oh they do. It's just the hot areas in developed countries that pretend they shouldn't be using white paint.
If I could find it and it was as durable as regular paint, I would paint everything that white that converts visible light into infrared that isn't blocked by the atmosphere. Yeet that heat right the fuck back into space damnit!
The climate change slogan that works: "Yeet the heat!"
I wanna chant at rallies: “Yeet that Heat! Yeet that Heat!”
That reminds me of the barium sulfate paint that was discovered a couple years ago. It's so incredibly good at reflecting/moving heat that it could even cool whatever it's painted on. I'll have to find a source on this again...
NightHawkInLight has a bunch of videos on making it
That video was exactly what I was referring to. Lol.
