Blocking heat from windows

[mousepod]

I've been following this thread with heightened interest, because we turned our new central air unit on for the first time last week, and even at full blast running for 24 hours straight, the best it did was make the house "not hot". We wound up shutting it off, because the crosswinds at night make the place so comfortable, we didn't think it was necessary for the few hours during the day when the sun is at its worst.

What we decided, and this thread seems to be bearing out, is that we need UV protection.

This Friday, 6 new Pella windows will be delivered to the house. We were planning on a retrofit, but because the frames are so old and partially rotted, we went for "nail-in", which will increase the installation cost.

We're getting three double casements, two single casements, and one single but large casement. The grand total before installation is around $3500. We estimate that the final all-in cost including installation will be about double that.

These 6 windows are less than a quarter of the windows in the house, so on our budget, this job will take a few years. Should the heat this summer be too much to take, I'm going to seriously consider some of the options that have been suggested here for the remaining windows.