That is a good question, the sunroom opens up to 70% of our living space in one great room it includes kitchen, dining room, living room/family room. It is where we usually are if we are not in bed!! The thermostat is in this room. Currently the opening is huge, nine feet, I am closing this off with french doors and casement winds. I am just in the initial stages of weaning this house off natural gas. A furnace upgrade will come come in several years. Right now I am focused on sealing this sunspace and spent the weekend begining to seal up the ducs and adding insulation. The gas fireplace will be the next big issue to address, it lies in the middle of the living space and has a brick chimmney going up the middle of the building. Your questions "A and B" will be determined by how clever (or if) I can get a fan blowing out the ceiling in the summer. The larger deciduous trees do shade southwest and west in summer already. To get the air in I hope to rig the return to my furnace on the sunroom roof into the living space. I have yet to figure out the best way to do this. So with a fireplace insert, insulation and sealing, and a functional passive solar space I would be thrilled to cut my gas bills in half.

You may be able to get a bias tape at a fabric store that complements the colors of the room. I would iron out the "bumps" from it being folded around the card. They sell a glue called "Tacky" at Joanne's that may work to glue the tape to the sides of the shade. You could also glue the bias tape onto the shades where the cords are run down the length of the shade, making two stripes of the tape on the shade itself, then the two stripes of the tape at the edges will look like they belong. I once used the Tacky glue to tightly wrap the ribs of a lampshade frame. I spiral-wrapped the ribs with bias tape and let the glue dry for a day. That then gave me a fabric-covered surface to each rib. I cut out fabric pieces to fit in the spaces between the ribs and used the Tacky glue to glue the left-side of each fabric panel to its left rib. I let that dry a day and then glued the other three edges of the fabric panels to their fabric-covered ribs, pulling it taut. After some trimming I covered each rib with a ribbon of ric-rac. Ta Da! A lampshade with no sewing. It wasn't lined, but I did not care. It has lasted me at least 17 years so far.

Won't the wind blow around the solar screen (is this really screen like window screen or fabric that "screens" out the sun?) or solar fabric? I guess I don't really understand the situation, a pic would help. Could she put the 48 inch stuff across the top so the top 48" had fabric, kindof like a giant valence? Good luck! Kathy

If you are putting solar shades on different size windows, here is one thing to be aware of. If one of your windows is wider than the width the fabric comes in, it can be covered by either seaming the fabric or by railroading the fabric. A seam is ugly so I recommend railroading the fabric but make sure that ALL of your shades are then made with the fabric railroaded. The reason for this is that the pattern of the weave in the fabric will look different when the fabric is turned.