Awnings: a simple cooling tech we apparently forgot about

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.

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?

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

“Fun fact: the Sun is extremely powerful.”

Bahahahaha! I like this guy.

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.

our house was built in the early 2000s. It has an awning.

Why were they forgotten? Probably because manual awnings suck, and once extended if it's windy, it's a rather fun time having it out.

Other than that, they're pretty good. I actually plan to experiment with passive building cooling using a similar technique, instead of an awning, it'll be a diffusion sheet of light fabric to block direct sunlight exposure to the walls, hopefully providing a decent bit of cooling, but naturally, i have to get around to testing it in the first place.

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.

Florida used to build houses with metal awning you would fold down over the window for hurricanes. We did away with those because hurricanes got stronger and would rip them off turning them to flying projectiles. Now we have panels and no awnings. Because of hurricane codes

I've got a large plate glass door in the side of my house, and I'm thinking of installing a pergola outside it. Grow something on it that gets nice and leafy in the summer and bare in the winter.

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?

Our house has a pretty big roof overhang, and it definitely does keep things cooler.

The downside is that the house is pretty dim.

my neighbour installed awnings a couple years ago, they look great

Better idea. They're called trees.

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.

Not to mention they are less work than trees

In my house in North Carolina, I put up radiant barrier foil in the attic. It was cheap and made a huge difference in the upstairs temperature. I stapled it to the joysts so there was an air gap on both sides of the foil, and so that the hot air would rise out of the roof vents.

No offense but they are also fucking ugly

These things are technologically obsolete imo. The same result can be achieved with glass coatings, without requiring the extra work to install/maintain or replace these appendages.

These awnings work against losing heat to the night sky, the same effect of which can be achieved with anti emissive coatings that reflect heat radiation back inside.

The awnings also work against the sun when it's high in the sky, for which there are now anti solar coatings which will reflect more light from certain angles.

Nostalgia is nice, but the modern solution is easier + cheaper to install and maintain.

A tldr image: https://www.agc-glass.eu/sites/default/files/styles/max_1300x1300/public/2024-05/diagram-coatings leaflet.JPG?itok=s97bN-aV

Longer promotional article: https://www.agc-glass.eu/en/sustainability/glass-sustainable-architecture/energy-saving-glass