I recently visited Dallas, Texas, a city that knows heat in a big way. A business associates had placed unusual looking screens over his windows–full length screen that were somewhere between translucent and opaque. He said they significantly reduced the solar load entering his house and made the rooms inside much cooler in summer.
How effective are these screens? How do they work and what material is used? Where can they be purchased?
I apologize for the slight hijack (I don’t know the answer to your question) but can you tell me how dark the rooms were that had the solar screens?
There are several types available. Most are just regular screens with extra wide horizontal threads. Not really all that great for obvious reasons. My favorite type have micro louvers. Less than an inch wide each and very narrow. Angled so the flat side points somewhat up to the sky. The view out the window down is quite good, straight out not so good, and upwards not at all.
My old high schoold had these (common on commercial buildings. My house had them on the sunnier windows when we bought it. But they got ripped over time plus were greenish. So I went looking for replacements. So far no luck. I don’t get it. A very common material AFAIK but no luck at hardware stores or searching the Internet. Had to resort to the less satisfactory type.
(There is also a very expensive not-so-micro louver type out there.)
So, my answers:
FtG aka GLP