4 Ways Awnings Offer Protection 

Your home requires a lot of maintenance to keep it looking great, but one way to reduce maintenance is to protect your home with awnings. Awnings have many benefits, making them a great investment in your home. If you would like to know more about awnings and how they offer protection, keep reading.

1. Provides Shade
The first advantage of awnings is that they provide shade, giving you a comfortable area to relax, play, or eat outside. This shade helps reduce the temperature under the awning, and because awnings aren't enclosed, air can easily continue to pass, preventing heat from building up under the awning. This makes it a great place to relax but also makes it safer for kids or adults who play rambunctiously.

Without shade, you are at a higher risk of developing heat exhaustion, which often leaves you with heavy sweating, faintness, dizziness, fatigue, muscle cramps, and headaches. In severe cases, heat exhaustion can advance to heatstroke. With heatstroke, you stop sweating, and without treatment, you may die.

2. Protects From Rain
Another benefit of awnings is that they provide protection from rain. This means that you can still spend time outside on rainy days without getting wet. However, even if you hate going outside when it's raining, the awning will protect your deck or patio. Exposure to water can cause wood to rot, expand, or decay.

Concrete may not rot when exposed to water, but if water gets in cracks, it can sink to the underground. If this area becomes too soft or unstable, the patio can develop big cracks or start to sink. Even if you don't have a patio or deck, awnings can help direct the water away from your foundation.

3. Blocks UV Rays
UV rays are particularly dangerous, and awnings serve as a barrier against them. Exposure to UV rays can increase your risk of developing skin cancer. UV rays come in UVA and UVB. UVA rays have a longer wavelength and tend to cause aging. UVB rays are shorter and are associated with burning.

Exposure to both types of UV rays, however, can create mutations in the DNA of skin cells. Eventually, this can lead to skin cancer. UV rays can also damage your eyes, increasing the risk of cataracts.

UV rays aren't just bad for your skin. Those same rays can damage various materials, including your decking, patio, and patio furniture. By protecting these materials from UV rays, you reduce the amount of uneven fade and the cost of replacement.

4. Shades Windows
Awnings over windows also provide shade for your windows, which pose several benefits. First, by blocking the amount of sunlight entering the windows, you better protect your interior materials from fading and damage by UV rays. Of course, you also protect your skin when sitting next to a window, if an awning covers it.

Ultimately, however, awnings over windows help protect your monthly energy bills. Heat gain via windows is common because of all the sunlight. This heat gain naturally increases the temperature inside your home, making it too hot during the summer. Awnings, however, help block some heat gain, so you use less energy to cool the home.

As an added benefit, you may use less energy during the winter too. Awnings are usually installed so they block the high summer sun and allow the low winter sunlight to enter to naturally add some heat for free.

Awnings make being outside a lot more comfortable, especially on warmer days where you need shade. Window awnings can even help protect items inside your home and keep your energy bills low. For more information regarding awnings, contact usat Sunstate Awning today.