There are a lot of contractors in the market today, that will provide you with solar screens, but since each application is a custom job it can be very expensive. That is unless you build them yourselves.

The cheapest way to build solar screens is to simply remove the screen cloth from your existing screens and replace it with solar screen cloth purchased from any home improvement store. Unfortunately, most window screens don't cover the entire window. If yours do, the the process is simple. If they don't, you may want to consider purchasing our plans.

The plans that we propose have been tested in our own home with great success. With these plans, a few tools and some materials one can construct solar screens that will save you money on your air conditioning bill while improving the comfort of your environment.

The objective of a solar screen is of course to decrease the flow of heat passing between the living space and the sun drenched window. In order to do this it must do three things:

Shade the window by up to 80 %.
Provide air flow between the solar screen and the window to prevent heat buildup.
Be removable, so that during the winter months you can take in the solar radiation to help heat your building.

Of course, in building a solar screen, consideration must also be given to ease of construction, availability of materials of construction, weight of the solar screen, esthetics (both viewed from inside and outside) and finally cost.

The best aspect of these solar screens is that they're so simple to construct, you don't need to hire a contractor to construct them. This reduces their cost substantially. As a result it cost me approximately $23.00 to build a 4X4 foot solar screen for one of my windows. I expect that at current energy prices I'll get payback in about a month. If energy prices go up even sooner!

Click on the "Orders" link at the left to place and order for a copy of these plans.

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