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Why don't we use awnings anymore (2022)

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413 points samclemens | 5 comments | 15 Oct 24 22:11 UTC | HN request time: 0.872s | source
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yongjik ◴[16 Oct 24 04:23 UTC] No.41855586[source]▶
Anecdotally, it feels like Americans generally don't care about natural lighting. About twenty years ago, my wife was looking for apartments and asked the leasing office if there was any unit available facing south or east. Apparently it was unusual enough a question that the apartment manager asked back if it was for religious reasons.
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1. advisedwang ◴[16 Oct 24 04:41 UTC] No.41855661[source]▶
This article would suggest the opposite though - when AC made it feasible everyone removed the awnings that were blocking light thus maximizing natural light.
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2. yongjik ◴[16 Oct 24 05:35 UTC] No.41855932[source]▶
But that's the thing - You probably don't want to sit outside under direct sunlight in a summer afternoon, do you? Unless you live very far up north, having summer sunlight hit your floor is not very pleasant, either. A well-positioned awning can block summer sunlight while allowing in most of winter sunlight.
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3. ghaff ◴[16 Oct 24 08:38 UTC] No.41856886[source]▶
My deck gets direct sunlight with no easy way to block it when the sun is high in the sky. As a result I don’t actually use the deck much until later in the day.
4. asdff ◴[16 Oct 24 17:52 UTC] No.41861782[source]▶
The article is making suppositions that aren't rooted in data. Here's another data point: where I live there are many homes and apartments that had awnings in the 1920s and don't today, and lack AC as well. Clearly they removed them for other reasons than AC. In my mind a new awning is vastly more expensive than a plastic set of blinds (or even better offering no blinds and having your tenant supply their own curtains) so perhaps that's what happened for these AC-less units.
5. asdff ◴[16 Oct 24 17:52 UTC] No.41861789[source]▶
Tell that to your cat