I have a big dilemma. I don't know whether to go with Solar shades or Cellular for my southwest facing windows. I have 6 windows to shade in my living room and they face south/south west.

It gets very warm in my living room during the summer. There is no shade. So warm that even with our new heatpump we can feel a temp. difference from one end of the house to the other. I actually bought a thermometer; it's 68 on one end and 76 degrees on the other on a 100 degree day. There might be something wrong with the ducts on the warm end of the house, but we are going to be insulating the ducts and adding insulation soon in the attic and floor.

Our weather is extreme in the summer (upper 90's - 100) to 15-20 degrees in winter. So I'm concerned that if we get the solar shades we won't be addressing the cold winters. And cellular shades from what I have read, address both issues?

I'm not a do-it-yourselfer, I'm having these installed and solar shades is what the installer recommended. I will ask why solar and not cellular, but I'm guessing that because we're taking care of the insulation thats why we should go with Solar shades?

Any thoughts? I posted on the Heating & Air Conditioning forum too but one suggestion was to get bigger vents. That sounded more expensive than energy efficient shades and since I already bought the heatpump I don't think I could change the size heatpump.