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I’m little worried about this upcoming week with 98 degree heat several days and my now 4 day-old baby blues. I do have a 3/4″ Styrofoam heat shield on it, but this box (actually none of my boxes) gets NO shade. I have looked over my 1 1/2 acre yard and just cannot come up with a different location for the boxes to get some shade. My back yard is on the west side of lot. I thought about putting a box in the front yard, but then I have a neighbor to my front that has cats which are loose and I do not need them around my boxes. Don’t have much trouble with them now because they do not come in my back yard (I have let them know they aren’t welcome). Okay – read somewhere about using aluminum as a heat shield and was wondering if I could put some on the foam as a reflector, or would that just make the foam to where it couldn’t “breathe”. Actually I was thinking about using a vinyl window screening product, along with the foam shield. This was mentioned on the Siaiis website and I have been contemplating this product for more than a year now, using it in combination with the foam shield. Man, 98 degree is going to be awfully hot for those babies. The foam will help considerably I know, but still……
White is a pretty good reflector on its own. No harm in trying the foil. It’s gonna be shiny!
I really like the umbrella idea for times like this.
Gin
Atlanta, GAThanks Gin, I thought about the umbrella, too. Problem is there is hardly a day goes by that we don’t have lots and lots of wind here. Ours is a rural subdivision so not much protection from the wind by close houses. I don’t think I could ever keep one up. And I’m gone quite a bit during the day so would not be around to put it up and down. Another thing that crossed my mind is to just put an additional layer of the foam on the top with very large overhangs and additional air flow spacers. Don’t know if layers would help or not. I’m just brain-storming here. P.s. I believe the aluminum the Sialis site was referring to is actual sheets of aluminum, not foil.
Well, Carol, that clears up the aluminum thing for me. Aluminum flashing makes way more sense.
What I do when I read about the problems here is brainstorm. Sometimes with success, sometimes not. The extra foam can’t hurt at all.
Gin
Atlanta, GAI’ve been following this thread because I have major heat concerns coming up this week. Five tiny ones in that house and temperatures above 90 all week. I guess I am just brainstorming too, but I was thinking about those shiny looking sunshades that people use on the insides of their car windshields to keep their cars cooler. I haven’t thought it through long enough to suggest an application for the material, but it seems that if one of those could be used to shade the birdhouse, it would reflect the sun and heat off of the house. I have to give it some more thought.
Susan
PennsylvaniaSusan, someone (or maybe several) have used this car windshield thing as a bird house shield. Don’t know how you would keep it in place or anything, but you must remember it absolutely HAS to have a dead-air space of at least 3/4″ between it and the wood. Otherwise, it is just keeping the house hotter.
Gin, glad I “unconfused” you about the aluminum, yes, it is called flashing, very thin. I believe the easiest might be a 2nd foam roof with lots of overhang at this point, as the babies are growing at a speedy rate. Weather forecast is 97 for 3 days later in the week, with 101 on Sunday, all actual temps. I will look into this tomorrow – I have plenty of extra foam because I bought a 4×8″ piece this winter to make 4 shields and have more than half left.
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