Hi all,
I'm investigating the idea of external blinds/shades/shutters on our south-facing windows. Our house is very well insulated which keeps most of the heat out in summer, but the heat getting through the windows just gets trapped in the house making it a bit too hot. Combine this with two gaming PCs running and the heat is often reaching 23C upstairs. Our main bedroom is south-facing, and the blinds being shut on the inside doesn't help anything as the heat is already through the windows. We were thinking of getting some drop-arm awnings (like this, linky) which would stop all the direct sun and help keep things a lot cooler, but we're running into an issue for the upstairs windows.
Here is a Google Maps street view link to a house that is the same as ours, but not ours: https://www.google.com/maps/@53.470...4!1sxYoRah-zXzLHGCRf8rXt3A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
As you can see, the upstairs windows are touching the fascia/soffits. I very much doubt we could mount an awning cassette on the fascia boards and so I need to consider options. We could potentially just mount a cassette across the front of the window but then we wouldn't be able to open the windows (much), as well as killing a bit of the view. To combat this we could replace the windows with the tilt/twist, open-to-the-inside type, but this is quickly going to add cost. We could also investigate switching to those type of windows anyway, with a built-in shutter that drops, but I'm not sure there's enough room behind the fascia to accommodate the shutter roller.
A lot of these options are going to get expensive quickly, especially if building work is needed, and I'm bothered that it'd start approaching the cost of just getting three split-AC units in the upstairs bedrooms to combat the heat. Our preference would be to not get AC to keep our energy usage down. Have I missed any obvious solutions here?
I'm investigating the idea of external blinds/shades/shutters on our south-facing windows. Our house is very well insulated which keeps most of the heat out in summer, but the heat getting through the windows just gets trapped in the house making it a bit too hot. Combine this with two gaming PCs running and the heat is often reaching 23C upstairs. Our main bedroom is south-facing, and the blinds being shut on the inside doesn't help anything as the heat is already through the windows. We were thinking of getting some drop-arm awnings (like this, linky) which would stop all the direct sun and help keep things a lot cooler, but we're running into an issue for the upstairs windows.
Here is a Google Maps street view link to a house that is the same as ours, but not ours: https://www.google.com/maps/@53.470...4!1sxYoRah-zXzLHGCRf8rXt3A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
As you can see, the upstairs windows are touching the fascia/soffits. I very much doubt we could mount an awning cassette on the fascia boards and so I need to consider options. We could potentially just mount a cassette across the front of the window but then we wouldn't be able to open the windows (much), as well as killing a bit of the view. To combat this we could replace the windows with the tilt/twist, open-to-the-inside type, but this is quickly going to add cost. We could also investigate switching to those type of windows anyway, with a built-in shutter that drops, but I'm not sure there's enough room behind the fascia to accommodate the shutter roller.
A lot of these options are going to get expensive quickly, especially if building work is needed, and I'm bothered that it'd start approaching the cost of just getting three split-AC units in the upstairs bedrooms to combat the heat. Our preference would be to not get AC to keep our energy usage down. Have I missed any obvious solutions here?
