The covered patio the low sun still reaches
Every change below is put into the plan and the whole model is run again. That is why a pergola's winter cost shows up here without anybody having written it down, and why the cheapest thing that works is allowed to win.
Reading at
Dinner outside
What it feels like is25.0°F over— 107.4°F against at most 82.4°F
Nobody finishes a meal in a seat that is cooking.
Glare is18 over— 46 / 100 against at most 28
You cannot look at the person across the table with the sun behind their head.
Confidence low (38%). Treat this as a starting hypothesis, not an answer.
A 13.8 ft umbrella fixes glare.
Ranked by what solves the actual limit with the least effort, not by the biggest number.
Not offered, and why
A 13.8 ft umbrella fixes glare.
A 13.8 feet canopy at about 7.5 feet, tilted toward the low sun.
+0 hours of usable time on this day.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A deciduous tree 23 ft west of the seat fixes glare.
A medium deciduous tree planted 23 feet to the west, grown to about 26 feet, with a crown roughly 19.7 feet across.
+0 hours of usable time on this day.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A 6.9 ft panel to the west fixes glare and costs you view.
A solid panel about 6.9 feet high and 9.8 feet wide, standing 7.2 feet to the west. Low sun arrives almost horizontally, and only something vertical stops it.
+0 hours of usable time on this day.
Summer beam up about 0 per cent, winter beam down about 92 per cent at this hour.
A drawable outdoor curtain fixes glare and costs you view.
A heavy outdoor curtain on a track, drawn across the west side when it is wanted and open the rest of the time.
+0 hours of usable time on this day.
Summer beam up about 0 per cent, winter beam down about 88 per cent at this hour.
Move the table 8.2 ft south-east does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Slide the seating about 8.2 feet toward the south-east and change nothing else.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A second seat 19.7 ft south does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Put two chairs 19.7 feet to the south and leave the main table where it is. The point is not to fix this spot but to stop needing it at the hour it does not work.
Summer beam up about 100 per cent, winter beam up about 0 per cent at this hour.
Sit under Deep patio roof does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Move the seating under Deep patio roof, which is already standing and already casting something. Costs nothing and takes an afternoon of trying it.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
Two 8.2 ft parasols instead of one does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Two parasols about 8.2 feet across, set 7.2 feet apart along the table. Between them they cover a rectangle, which is the shape a table actually is.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
Two low shielded lights instead of one high one does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Add a pair of shielded 200 lumen fixtures at knee height near the seating, so the useful light is where people are rather than thrown across the garden.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A shade sail over the seating does not move this in any way worth the effort.
A sail about 16.4 feet by 13.1 feet, set at about 9.2 feet and angled to shed water.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A deciduous climber on tensioned wires does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Wires strung about 8.5 feet above the seating with a vigorous deciduous climber trained across them. In leaf it shades like a light pergola; bare, it gives back most of the winter sun a solid roof would have kept.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A 8.2 ft awning does not move this in any way worth the effort.
A folding-arm awning projecting 8.2 feet from the house wall at about 8.5 feet, retracted out of season.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A pergola with open slats does not move this in any way worth the effort.
A pergola about 13.1 feet square at 8.5 feet with open slats, slats running roughly north.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
An adjustable louvred roof does not move this in any way worth the effort.
A louvred roof about 13.1 feet square at 8.5 feet, blades running north and closable.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A solid canopy over the seating does not move this in any way worth the effort.
A solid roof about 11.2 feet above the seating, 13.1 feet by 11.5 feet, guttered on the low edge. Unlike fabric it works in rain, and unlike a pergola it takes the winter light too.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
Horizontal fins above the opening does not move this in any way worth the effort.
A run of fixed horizontal fins projecting about 2.3 feet from House, set above head height. Geometry does the work: high summer sun is cut, low winter sun passes under, and the view out is barely touched.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A ventilated timber deck instead does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Replace Pale slab with a ventilated timber deck. Heavy paving charges all afternoon and radiates back until well after dark, which is why an evening terrace can feel hotter than the air. A light deck over an air gap is done within the hour.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
Take up the paving and plant it does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Lift Pale slab and plant it. Nothing else on this list moves surface temperature as far: paving in full sun sits twenty degrees or more above the air, while planted ground transpires and typically sits at or below it. It is also the only change here that gets better rather than worse over ten years.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.