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
It’s expensive. I got quoted 10k for 4 windows
Better quality of living (in the long run even living longer) and less energy consumption on the AC may change that calculation.
This is the real reason they disappeared - awnings cost money and don’t increase square footage. That’s also why every modern building is a boring box.
We didn’t forget about them, it’s still covered in architecture school. You can even make them look really cool. But they cost money, and that’s a hard barrier to cross.
You can buy them off the shelf and then put them up yourself. Of course then you have to calculate the amount of pain it’ll be to put them up and the fact that it’ll never be as good as getting it done by professional. Plus in my case they’ll be a lot less blood involved.
10 grand does seem like a lot of money though. How large are your windows?
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.
Shade doesn’t have to block any of the view. Many very modern houses with giant windows use these principles.
View includes being able to see the sky. These permanently block some of the view of the sky.
People want to have their full window view available whenever they want it.
damn, too bad you can’t just like, go outside, or something.
People get shot for doing that these days
you should try going outside. Might reduce your chances of getting shot from going outside.
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
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Not bigger and stronger… But more frequent and on average skewing toward the stronger end of the cat 1 to 5 scale.
This article is from 2019 and argues against the methods laid out in research article published at the same time. It does not provide adequate evidence to support your claim that thid is a myth. I Will do some more research later today, but this author writes for a think tank. I’d advise some due dillignece before reading this guys material. Forbes is also right leaning so will have some level of bias here.
Can’t you just take them off? I’ve never lived in a part of the world that has hurricanes but I have lived in properties with shutters and you can take them off, you tend to do so in the winter because they’re just pointless for half the year.
my neighbour installed awnings a couple years ago, they look great
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.
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.
The most common ones are made out of very thin plastic. There’s also older ones out of wood. The most common ones are out of aluminum, so not strictly protective. Steel shutters are rather rare on houses and more something stores would use.
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These are soooo common on old houses in Melbourne. I’ve never met anyone who lives in one, but they’re often closed all year which is insane to me (are these people sitting in the dark in their living rooms??)
You should actually watch the video, he does adress them
I don’t watch clickbait videos.
…Have you never watched Technology Connections before? None of his videos are clickbait. Quite the opposite, the entire video is about whatever is in the title.
No. And I literally see two fat arrows in the thumbnail. That’d be an instant block if that would land on my YT page.
The two big arrows pointing to the awnings, the things the video are about and that are in the title? Huh?
I am getting more of a chuckle out of the person’s “I have made up my mind based on nonsense and no amount of real information will change it!!”
That is a wild stance.
So? It’s still a clickbait tactic, same with the idiotically capitalized words a lot of channels use, or the shocked faces. Just because you are unaware of the psychological manipulation of clickbait tactics, does not mean this goes for everyone.
I dunno what to tell you it’s by definition not clickbait. You could argue that it’s teasing or engagement baiting I guess but it isn’t clickbait.
You shouldn’t judge a channel purely by thumbnail. Everyone else in this thread can attest to the high quality of his videos.
I just generally have an aversion towards clickbait of any kind to the point where I can’t stand any video / channel using it. It’s cheap and manipulative and everyone supporting such shady tactics is someone I don’t want to associate with in any form.
I’ve lived in NY for too long and that looks like it needs spray paint and giant locks
As the video points out, those are cool but block the view, and still hear up the room.
Our house has a pretty big roof overhang, and it definitely does keep things cooler.
The downside is that the house is pretty dim.
That’s a rude thing to say about your house. There’s more than just book smarts, you know.
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.
do the cheapest and most simple things you can do first, even if minor, it provides a small window for you to royally fuck up and gives you some room grow into
Awnings would likely be a pretty cheap and impactful one.
I’ve put 500mm of insulation in the loft, plenty of mistakes made there.
Just managed to get an electric awning to go over the lounge window for £140, fingers crossed it all goes well and if so I’ll do the upstairs windows too.
15 more things on the list though.
don’t worry, the list will grow shortly enough :)
There is always something new to be doing unfortunately.
“Fun fact: the Sun is extremely powerful.”
Bahahahaha! I like this guy.
I heard that the sun is a deadly laser, ya learn something new all the time
Not anymore
there’s a blanket
Dude, check out his channel. A wealth of knowledge and laughs
Very dry laughs. And alliteration.
And latent heat.
And the magic of buying two of them!
Better idea. They’re called trees.
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 -_-
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.
while i don’t disagree, we should probably stop building suburbia as that would solve our problem. Suburbs completely decimate everything in the way and require replanting of the entire foliage, often leading to really shitty growth.
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?
Better idea, they’re not mutually exclusive
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.
trees near buildings are a nightmare, they can often grow weirdly due to lack of sun, and often make maintenance and clean up on the tree itself a nightmare, if it grows to close to your house you need to do something about it. They are also generally liabilities during storms, especially if they hang directly over your house.
Like a previous commenter said, they can be problematic for foundations and driveways and things like that. It seems fairly common that surface level root structures will expose themselves and start to pop through the top layer of dirt, primarily due to soil erosion and compaction i imagine, but that’s another problem for grounds keeping as well.
Speaking of grounds keeping, trees make grass grow really inconsistently, and also generally provide “dead spots” where the grass will get almost no sun, and almost certainly die. Also mowing under them is hard. Trees don’t really grow at human accessible heights all that often. And when they do, they’re not as good for providing shade.
I live in Chicago. So does Alec. Stop the video at 5:44. All the trees are doing far more cooling and shading to the entire area than shitty old window awnings blocking single windows.
i live in the midwest also. Suburbs around here hate planting trees next to houses, and when they do, they’re often too close to the house, or too close to other trees, or like i previously mentioned, cause other issues.
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.
Don’t forget about the other dish washer videos on connextras.
Are you guys playing a bit or is someone gonna link the youtuber for those interested?
edit: I’m an idiot, ignore me
For the other idiots that stumble upon this post, see the most OP for a link.
You could of course click the video since that’s by the content producer.
i religiously watch the oil lamp videos. For some reason.
Fan of Hannukah?
No offense but they are also fucking ugly
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.
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.
Why do you care that much?
Cool, thanks for pointing those out. I really need something like that
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.
Im lucky as im right below the roof so I get the effect but nobody on the other floors get that shade except for the balcony getting it from the balcony above.
Not to mention they are less work than trees
You can definitely put them up and take them down faster.
Maybe, in the future, we’ll have rapid up/rapid down trees? With AI. Maybe they’ll get the ability to walk, too, so they can stand where they provide the most shade.
Oh, AI Tree Ents? That’s the future we’re going for? I mean, I’m in, but I didn’t realize that was even on the table!
We make the table, so we get to decide what’s on it. But don’t make the table from trees, the ents get mad.
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Trees don’t turn inside out in a mild breeze though
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.
Interior shades aren’t nearly as effective as exterior. Once that sun gets through the window, it’s already giving that next interior surface quite a bit of heat.
There are many styles of awning or other shading elements. You can have metal slats or what looks like a wood box that comes out horizontally over the window. I’m sure something could fit your house’s aesthetic. And perhaps ask your wife what value she’d put on thermal comfort.
Looking for shading elements or shading strategies might get broader results than simply sheet metal or fabric awnings.
Interior shades are a special kind of heating by trapping and converting every.
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.
That combined with building materials, where I live we build out of Adobe and my house stays warm in winter and cool in summer, the outside looks like mud smeared on the walls.
Don’t you have to pay subscription fee now though?
I am going to upvotes this … But I won’t be happy about it…
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.
always been confused why roofing in the NA area is often black, or close to black, it simply doesn’t help anybody.
Also, the color doesn’t make that much of a difference. Like a percentage you can count on one hand. Much more significant gains can be had from ridge vents and other ways of getting the heat out of the attic, and insulation to keep that heat from going into the house.
At least according to my acquaintance in the roofing industry, and obvs this is regarding typical US/Canada SFHs
i could see the utility in it providing natural drafting for ventilation, but honestly, with the advent of modern homes moving towards insulated attics and loft spaces, that’s definitely the correct choice.
I don’t know for sure but I assume of it is because light roofs require more maintenance to look as nice. Nothing shows up on a dark brown or black roof. A white or light grey would show dirt and debris. I don’t want to waste my time washing my roof because my HOA doesn’t like the way it looks.
i guess so? But a dark grey roof is already literally made from asphalt. It can’t look much worse that proto road material.
Even then you could easily do a brighter grey color. Doesn’t have to be white, but nearly every roof i ever see is either black, some variant of a dark color. Not a lighter grey or red, those are lot less common.
It’s cause they are built from petroleum
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