I do door to door sales for a living right now and I always hate knocking on west facing doors. It feels like an oven. The as the sun goes down in the afternoon it starts to heat up the west side of houses. The concrete and siding suck up all that heat from the sun and heat transfers into houses into the evening. I have been thinking about this a lot lately, because I continue to bake on west facing porches and doors.
How can you minimize the suns heat on your home during the summertime? It is really simple; plant big trees on the East and West side of your house. That way the sun only hits your house for 4 to 5 hours a day from 10 am to 3 pm and only full on sun for maybe 2 hrs. This will dramatically cut down your cooling bill during the summer.
What trees to plant?
I recommend a fast growing tree like a poplar. My parents planted 20 maple trees on the east side the house where I grew up when I was 5 years old and still to this day they look like little trees that are only 15 feet high and offer little to no shade. That is 20 years of growth and these trees as still not blocking the sun from this old house. My parents got smarter with their next house. They planted poplars and now they are a 50-70 feet high and shade their house beautifully. In only 3 to 4 years these trees were big enough to give shade from the summer sun.
If you don’t like poplars find a different tree that grows really fast in your area so you can enjoy the savings that trees can provide.
Authored by Steven Cooper Google
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