by Gayle Dufour

I live on a mountaintop facing due west in Woodland Hills. There are no trees nearby, on this steep hillside, to shelter me from the sun. The summers here, from July to October, are extremely hot. All of the windows in my house are double-glazed and have thin cellular shades. I also have several high-sloped ceilings. My air conditioning, set at 78 degrees, wasn’t keeping up with temperatures in the 100’s.

To improve this situation, the first thing I thought about was the possibility of installing ceiling fans to help move the conditioned air around. They don’t use much electricity. I noticed that I had ceiling fixtures in the kitchen, dining room, living room and study. Since the wiring was already in place, all I had to do was replace these lighting fixtures with ceiling fans that come with lights. Having done this, I noticed an immediate improvement in my air conditioning. It is able to keep up with higher temperatures outside.

Still, on those very hot over 100 degree days, I needed more help. I decided to place Insulfoam, Energy Star rated insulation, in the windows facing the western sun in the afternoon. The Insulfoam is made without CFC’S, HCFC’S or formaldehyde. I found the rigid insulation boards at a builder’s hardware big box store in two thicknesses: 3/4 inch and 2 inch. Using a box cutter, I cut the Insulfoam to fit over the glass in the window frame. I slid these boards between the glass and my cellular shades. I used two different thicknesses, depending on how much space there was between the glass and the shade. This idea greatly cuts down the heat entering my house through these windows, lessening the air conditioning load.

Even so, there was one more thing left for me to do. I discovered retractable awnings! Since I wanted the sun to come in the winter but not in the summer, they were perfect for my situation. I contacted three awning companies for bids in the San Fernando Valley. I needed three awnings: one for the kitchen wall facing west and two for the two sliding glass doors also facing west. The modern architecture of my house did not provide roof overhangs in these areas. I hired one of these companies to install them with hand cranks, not motorized. I found the hand cranks easy to operate, not subject to breakdown and costing a lot less. By preventing the sun from reaching these walls, the awnings keep the temperature inside my house cooler by 10-15 degrees!

Using ceiling fans, Insulfoam rigid insulation boards and retractable awnings have definitely lowered my air conditioning bills during the long hot summer. I don’t need to run the A/C system as often. When necessary, it comes on much later in the day. And most importantly, for comfort, the air conditioning keeps up with those 100 + degree days with the thermostat set at 78 degrees!