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Does anyone have a solution to heat gain from our west-facing windows?

Donna Collins
last year

Hi! We have a wonderful mid-century modern home in Portland, OR and we love the wall of windows in the livingroom. Unfortunately, the afternoon heat is brutal! We're on Day 7 of the latest heatwave... nothing like last year's 116 degree blast furnace, but it's been in the high 90s-low 100s. The hottest part of the day is also when we get the sun directly into the livingroom. So far, we've replaced the single pane glass with double pane UV-treated and added insulation when we replaced the roof membrane. We also re-did the landscaping last year and added bamboo along the fence, which should eventually grow up to 12-14 feet tall. All of those things help, but there comes a point in the afternoon where there's essentially no way to keep the sun from blazing through the windows. In the bedroom, which has a flat roof, we've installed panel track blinds that do a good job of keeping the room cool, but I'm stumped on finding a window treatment that works with the windows in the vaulted area without compromising the architecture of the house or the indoor/outdoor flow. As you can see in the photo, the glass is really the exterior wall and there's nowhere for drapes or blinds to stack without being pretty obtrusive. Help!


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