Shading West Facing WIndows/Bedrooms

Further to this thread (about east and west bedrooms):
http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=3583&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=bedrooms&start=0

Can anyone give me their opinions and other ideas on how to create some shade and/or minimise heat building up in two of my west facing bedrooms. It gets very hot in there and we're not fans of very hot weather.

I currently have three options.

1) Louvres


2) Sun blinds or Awnings



3) Pergola type thing (yet to be designed)


Here are my current thoughts:

• I like the look of louvres but fear they might be out of the budget.

• I'm liking the sun blinds as the windows they will be attached to are in the 'backyard' and I don't want anything too obtrusive or something that will take up too much space and lessen our backyard space. Images are from this website:
http://www.shadesystems.com.au/index.html

• I also like the pergola idea. But I'm very particular about the design and therefore will probably design something that will not serve the purpose of blocking out sun! LOL

The louves look lovely, but a bit permanent? You will be cleaning cobwebs and dirt out of them constantly i would think.

I suppose you don't want something fixed onto the window all year round so possibly the draw down blinds or the pull out blinds would be better. That way, you can retract them and have a full window to let the sun in, in the cooler months.

Oooh, I hate spiders! Totally scraping that from my list just for that very reason!

Thanks for bringing that up.

Sorry!!!!!!!!
There has to be other options though?

Spiders are good. They eat the flies and mossies.

External blind will do a good job

If you put in some double glazed windows with Low E glass (wont cost a great deal extra) then you wont have to worry about the external blinds or louvres (keep the look of the home)

How many windows in the bedrooms on the West side and which builder if you dont mind me asking?

DQQ

House is finished so double glazing is out of the equation now. But two bedrooms with one window each of approximately 1.5m x 1.2m. Both have eco thermal cedar blinds as window covering.

And the builder is PD. Is there something I don't know?!

Sorry missed that

Then I would go with the external blinds

No issue with builder - just asking from a general interest point of view

I would be interested in what you finally decide on

thansk

dqq

This should give you a few ideas Y.

http://www.energysmart.com.au/brochures/energy_saving_windows.pdf

Is there much wall exposed to the sun as well?

Are the inside walls hot to touch at the end of the day from sun warming it up.
Be careful checking this and do not confuse it with the rooms warmth warming the walls.

The best way to determine this is touch the wall low down near the skirting - if's hot down there - then you have a wall heating issue as well.

If it gaining heat via the walls as well - then you'll need to shade walls too.

Steve

All good.

I thought you were going to say something like...oh, that builder - they use really bad windows that's why your bedroom heats up! Or something like that. That's why I got a bit worried.

I'll let you know what we eventually decide on. Most likely leaning towards the sun blinds. But all depends on the price. Otherwise they will just stay like that. Hehe

But does anyone think they're ugly?

The whole west side of the house is entirely brick except where there's windows. It's about 14m wide.

As far as I can tell it's just the temp and not the walls heating up. But I will actually touch it when I'm home just to make sure.

Thanks for the link. It's making for an interesting read.

try tinting the windows?

A tree that loses it's leaves in winter??

great idea. but with my gardening skills i think i'd probably end up killing the tree!

A 'solar pergola' is one solution that works letting heat in in winter and sun out in summer.

We have a massive West facing window and this is the solution we have adopted.

In another room where we have a smaller West facing window we have ordered a new style of blind, forgive me I have forgotten it's name, which has air pockets trapped inside creating effectively an air insulation barrrier. Not installed yet so I don't know how effective this will be.

Do let us know what it's called when you remember and how effective it is after you have it installed.

FYI - we have decided to go with an awning/sunblind. Been given quotes ranging from $300-1000 from different companies ranging from small to large businesses.

Are you hoping to put them in to help you with the heat this summer Missy????

Yes and no. It's for all year comfort. My sis (who occupies one of the bedrooms in question) keeps complaining that her room gets hot in the late afternoon when the sun is setting. She was hoping the neighbours at the rear would build a two storey house to block the sun. Much to her disappointment it's a single storey. Hehe

We had roller shutters installed on the west and north facing windows. These have a two fold effect for us, one is that the rooms are cooler and quieter, the second is we can leave the shutters closed but with gaps between the blades, and leave the windows (awnings in our case) open for air, and still have protection from the sun.

I'm a little confused. You have external roller shutters on awning type windows? How does that work - I mean how can you have the roller shutters closed but the awning window open?

In any case I'm really no fan of the roller shutters. No offence but I don't like the look or the price tag. I also feel it's somewhat of a security issue and I have these thoughts of getting locked inside a house and not being able to get out in case of emergency.