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.
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 -_-
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.
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
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
And literally never thought about it more than that.
So people may not really know what they're for, just that they're "old-fashioned". Not sure how to make them trendy but that seems to be a deciding factor in how people invest in their homes. Maybe sell them with "live laugh love" printed on the front with wine bottles dangling from the corners?
Just start doing it and brag about your electric bill going down. Eventually others will do the same for the same reason. Then it becomes a trend for being a thing people are doing.
They definitely make a house look dated. I doubt this would pass the wife test for most people. I know my wife wouldn't like them, and we're all about saving energy.
Make them out of eco friendly bamboo slats and 36-in long sections of galvanized square steel, sell it flat packed on Amazon and people will go crazy for 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!
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...
