There’s no denying that the sun can become a significant hindrance if you don’t have the right arrangement in your vicinity. Hence it would help if you looked for necessary equipment and adjustments to prevent yourself from getting sun-baked during your vacations. It’s essential to mention that outdoor shades can help you stave off from the scorching sun in this regard.
Outdoor sun shades are typically fitted into patio overhangs. However, you could also use them to block the heat and light in several outdoor spaces. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the top ten tips to use outdoor shades to stay cool this summer.
1.) Patio
Your existing patio cover could be perfect for screening you from the sun overhead. But it would help if you also thought about the later hours of the day when the sunlight comes right in. This is why you must consider using outdoor sun shades for the increased flexibility to block glare.
2.) Window Quilts
Window quilts can effectively contribute to preventing the intense heat of the sun during the summers. These window quilts typically come with a quilted sheet, accessible by rolling and unrolling. They are skilfully designed to provide a snug fit. It’s essential to mention that these quilts provide boosts on R-value, identical to cellular shades while costing less.
3.) Blinds
Window blinds also contribute to lowering the summer heat gain. Available in either horizontal or vertical slat-type, they are providing greater efficiency in guarding the sun. There’s no denying that supervising the heat loss is borderline taxing, primarily through the interior window blinds. This is since there are multiple openings in between the blinds’ slats. Furthermore, you could also maneuver with the slats to guard glare, light, and solar heat gain.
Additionally, if you choose to shut down or lower the reflective blinds, you can effectively restrict heat gain. It’s essential to mention that you could also maneuver the typical horizontal blinds to reflect or block harsh sunlight over a light-coloured ceiling.
4.) Exterior Shutters
Exterior shutters are primarily used for lowering the solar heat gain. They are skilfully developed from various materials, such as wood, fabric, steel, aluminium, or vinyl. The shutters and shades typically feature openings. This will allow you for some visibility through the window.
In case there is any storm, you could drop the blinds to allow the slats to meet and provide privacy, shade, security, and protection. Otherwise, you could choose to raise the shades marginally to let some air into the room.
5.) Awnings
In simple terms, an awning is a roof-like screening structure that you can install on the exterior of your house. It contributes to acting guard against the solar heat and glare. Furthermore, they can pride shading to outdoor settings as well. You could choose from either fixed or retractable awning, depending on your requirement.
A per the industrial analysis, the traditional window awnings can effectively bring down the solar heat gain to a rough 65% on south-facing windows. These figures stand almost similar at 77% when put in context to west-facing windows.
You can either choose a superior awning to shade one particular window inside your establishment. Or you could go for an awning custom-made to protect the absolute space as well.
6.) Front Porch
There’s no denying that outdoor shades can significantly influence your domestic environment. Your best choice must always include a motorized system. Doing so will enable you to bring down the shades over the front porch with a flick of a button.
7.) Sliding Glass Door
Admittedly, French doors and sliding glass doors can pose certain specific threats for the user. In most cases, the regular shades come as bulky to come in between the functionalities of the doors. Hence if you are looking to keep your doors unopposed yet allow light control on occasion, you must instead try mounting an external shade on the outside of the doors.
8.) Exterior Window Screens
For an astute understanding, solar screens can effectively lower UV damage, solar heat gain, and glare. You could choose to fix them on either the interior or the exterior of the surrounding as fixed panels or roller shades. Furthermore, they also provide light transmission. In layman’s language, exterior window screens share a remarkable resemblance to traditional insect screens. However, they have better efficiency and credentials to offer.
9.) Balcony
More and more people choose to install outdoor shades when furnishing the balcony of their upper-story room or vacation condo. This allows them to improve the comfort quotient of their surrounding while also adding a sense of privacy.
10.) Insulated Cellular Shades
Lastly, you could also go for insulated cellular shades. They are skilfully developed from pleated materials to allow folding up to the top of the window. It’s essential to highlight that insulated shades feature multiple air layers structured in a honeycomb cross-section. You do have the option to adjust the shades from either top or bottom.