Nowadays, the trend of installing awnings in the home’s landscape design is quite common. Other than adding aesthetic appeal to the landscape, awnings also protect the house from excess heat. Here is a lowdown on the popular types of awnings:

1. Wall awning is one of the best ways to provide shade to the outer walls of the house. This is specially suitable for all those walls of your house which receive excess sunlight in the afternoon. When you install the wall awning, it prevent the sunlight to fall on the wall. As a result, the walls do not get heated.
Awnings are made in a style that enables them to absorb and release heat quickly. Here is how the heated awnings cool down instantly:

Canvas awning: air passes through the material of the awning.
Plastic awning – air passes across the material of the awning.

2. Window awning is similar to wall awning. It absorbs the sunlight that falls on the windows. It is suitable for all those windows that receive excess sunlight during the afternoon. Heated windows automatically heats up the interior of the house. Once you install window awnings, you can control the temperature of your house.

Note: many people think that by closing the curtains of the windows, they prevent the heat from coming in the house. Well, this is nothing but a myth. When you close the curtains of your window, the sunlight falls directly on the curtains. Heated curtains inevitably heat up the interior of your house. Thus, awning is the best way to prevent heat coming into your house through the windows. Window awnings absorb and disperse heat quickly.

3. Retractable awnings is the most popular type of awnings. It is common in most homes; reason – you can easily retract the awnings in the winters. Compared to other awnings which might work against you in winters by blocking sunlight, with retractable awnings you do not have to face this problem. Considering this feature of the retractable awnings, they are also called on-demand awnings.

Benefits of retractable awnings:

• Retractable awnings prevent your house to get heated up in the summer. They reduce heat up to 77%. Thus when you install retractable awnings, you save a lot on cooling cost.
• Retractable awning allows you to receive full sunlight in your house during the winters.
  This automatically lowers your heating cost too.
• Retractable awnings are easy to store. You can roll them up and keep them anywhere in your house throughout the winter. They have a hood (optional) to be protected from the winter chill.
• Retractable awnings provide complete protection from sun, rain and wind.

Retractable awnings have almost zero maintenance. Sometimes, you might just need to hose off the awning.

Factors that determine the cost of the awning:

• Style of the awning
• Size of the awning
• Color
• Fabric
• Model of the retractable awning
• Mounting

If you want you can add additional elements to the retractable awnings like –

• Lighting
• Wind Sensors
• Infrared Heater
• Motor

Note: while these elements will add to the functionality of the retractable awning, you will also have to pay more for them.
If you live in places like New Zealand, you can easily find many online dealers of awnings. All you need to do is to search in the internet with keywords like – ‘awnings in NZ‘, ‘popular awning dealers in New Zealand’ and so on.

Nicola is a renowned author. She has written many articles on home decor and renovation. In this article she writes about awnings.