Using Solar Screens to Block the Sun’s Rays
September 25, 2010 at 12:40 AM
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Monty Walker
In a effort to keep houses and businesses cool, the window shading movement is certainly expanding. Screenmobile offers custom shading products for homes and businesses from more than 100 franchise locations nationwide. As the name suggests, these are mobile franchises that come right to customers’ doors to discuss and install products for windows, doors and patios.
Seven-year Screenmobile customer Vikki Clayton has lived through 10 steamy desert summers in her Phoenix, Arizona, home. After three years of living in the west-facing concrete-block house—two features that turn any building into a sun sponge—she’d grown tired of quick fixes like ceiling fans, window-tinting films and costly A/C units. She turned to Screenmobile for their solar screens, which block 80% to 90% of the sun’s rays. The screens are installed on the outside of the window and, unlike tinting films, they are completely removable.
Today, with several solar screens in place, her electricity bills have dropped from about $378 per month to $200 per month. In addition, her A/C usage has dropped by about 40%. Citing additional savings related to the protection of her carpets, furniture and art work, Clayton says, “If you live in this region, it’s not really possible to live in a house and not have them.”
Looking forward, new technological advancements will allow us to harness the sun’s energy any way we see fit, right on the surface of our windows. Until then, bushes, trees and high-tech screens, retractable or otherwise, will have to suffice.
The original article can be found at EMagazine.com.
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