Passive Solar Designed Window Shading

Jason wants to set up a Solar Home Tour in our town, BUT the only thing that we have "solar" is our sun tea maker...
We do have plans for a solar hot water sytem, and are strongly considering a solar electric system (grid-linked).

It occurred to Jason not long ago (a month before the Summer Solstice) that the windows on the south side of our house were letting in alot of heat, basically acting like passive solar heaters So by adding a little roof, you could put them in the shade and "turn off" the heat.
"Brilliant! Do it!" I encouraged.
And he did... in a day!
His design provides complete shade for 2 months of Summer, when sun in highest in the sky, and provides complete sun for the 2 coldest months of Winter.
So thanks to my geeky solar husband, we are finally on the solar powered road!

Thoughts...

Today we went on a Solar Home tour in Blountsville, Alabama. Reminded me of the Ecovillage we WOOFed at in New Zealand. It was a beautiful day, the weather was a little on the warm side... The homes were amazing. And so were the people!

Jason and I talked a bunch, especially about our goals in creating our self-sufficient, low-energy-using home and life. We concluded that the best changes that we can make we are already making.

1. Transportation--Jason bikes to work, and I am beginning to bike more to the grocery store (we even bought a used bike trailer). We drive as little as possible in a Jetta diesel on our home-brewed BioDiesel. J says that in transportation we use 1/20 what the avg. American uses! This was the first big change we made in our lifestyle.

2. Food--Buy Local, less meat, less processed foods, and We have a Garden (getting better every year). I buy bulk grains and beans, and love to bake. This is the second biggest imporvement that we made.

3. Housing--We use 1/4 the avg. American in electricity (and half of that is from our hot tub--we're currently considering alternatives), almost 1/8 in gas, and about 1/4 in water (plus we put up 2 homemade rain barrels this summer, which helps a bit, esp. in a draught). We are continuing to try to reduce or energy usage.