Southern Sun Solutions

Southern Sun Solutions works across shutters, blinds, shades, screens and patio shading in the St. George area. The exterior half of that list does something the interior half cannot, and the difference comes down to where the heat is stopped.

Context

Sunlight entering a window is converted to heat when it strikes something inside the room. An interior blind or drape absorbs that radiation and warms up, and it is then a warm object inside the conditioned space, radiating and convecting most of that heat into the room regardless of the drape. An exterior screen or shade intercepts the same radiation outside the glass, where the heat it absorbs is carried away by outside air and never enters the building. That is why solar screens and exterior shades reduce cooling load far more effectively than any interior treatment, and it is a substantial effect on a west-facing window in a valley that runs well over a hundred degrees for weeks at a time.

Solar screen fabric is specified by openness factor, the percentage of the weave that is open. A lower figure blocks more heat and glare and obscures the view more; a higher one preserves the view and blocks less. Fabrics differ in whether they are optimized for view out or for heat rejection, and darker screen colors generally give better outward visibility while lighter ones reflect more heat. Retractable patio screens extend the same principle to outdoor living space, turning a west-facing patio from unusable to usable in the late afternoon - which in this climate is the difference between having an outdoor room and having one on paper.

Related on the site: awning and patio cover companies and HVAC contractors. See every listing under Window Coverings & Blinds.