My daughter used to live down south. I visited her several times, and every time I told her she needed to put heavy drapes up to her living room windows. I would walk into that room, and the sun coming through the wall of windows was blinding. Not only was the sun difficult on the eyes, but it was terribly hot, even with the air conditioning running. She seemed to be clueless to the idea that the reason for her energy bills going so high was because she didn’t have any drapes up to those windows. With heavy drapes, the living room would be cooler. If the living room was cooler from the lack of solar heating, the air conditioning unit would not be running as much. Instead of the air conditioning unit needing to be replaced in five years, with the help of drapes, she could prolong that replacement for an extra 3, 4, or maybe five years. I couldn’t believe it when she told me they could not afford to buy drapes for their living room. That’s when I asked her how much her energy bill was the previous month. She told me but said it was only because the air-conditioning was running. I shook my head and told her that was exactly what I was talking about. The drapes would only cost half as much as her air conditioning bills for one month, and she would probably save that much money every month. It took her six months to buy the drapes, and six minutes to call and tell me I was right about the energy bills and the air conditioning unit.