I really so didn’t understand the direct sunlight heating dynamic. The fact that we had a great view and no close neighbors in our new place was just awesome. Neither my wife nor I had ever experienced this before. So naturally, we didn’t put up drapes of shades. We were so thrilled to live in a house with our own HVAC equipment that having a killer view and no neighbors was icing on the cake. My wife and I grew up and lived all our lives, until recently, in a big city. It was a great way to live and there are no regrets, it also got to be a bit too much. The older we got, the more we wanted our own place. Finally, we made that happen. We bought a house in a rural area that is smack in the middle of some great nature. However, nature also produces direct sunlight heating and I got a crash course in that pretty quick. When the spring turned to summer, of course, the HVAC cooling kicked in. Oh man, how great it is to have the latest in residential HVAC and own it ourselves. This house is easily the most comfortable of anywhere we’ve ever lived. But we learned that without covering the windows that got direct sunlight heating, our utility bill went through the roof. Luckily, the HVAC company pointed us in the right direction. We were able to pair our smart thermostat with some mechanical blinds. The smart thermostat operates them to stop the direct sunlight heating. That brought our air conditioning bill way down and real quick.