Stick Perforated Material to your Glazing

In the Northern Hemisphere, only North-facing windows are sheltered from the sun. So during a heat wave, if you have windows that face in any other direction (including upward-facing rooflights), it will be beneficial to provide some external shading.

Europeans often employ external shutters or roller shutters or wooden external shutters to do exactly this.

But if you want to test the effectiveness before buying something more permanent or just need a quick fix, why not apply some perforated material to the outside of the window?

The perforations will mean that a view and daylight will be maintained. These are the same principles of how the Velux awning blind products work - covered in this blog post- and they reduce the heat by up to 78%. The principles of how you retain a view out is covered here, in a Wikipedia article about see-through advertising.

Of course, choose something suitable for your building, and seek permission and advice wherever relevant.

In the ‘solutions’ section, we explore usage of paper mesh material, perforated stainless steel as well as Velux anti-heat awning blinds. Know of any similar, cheaper, or more suitable materials or techniques? Please let me know!