heating/cooling question

[davester]

bazookaman wrote: We've tinted the windows on that side as well as hung some blackout curtains. There's just nothing else we can do...except suck it up.

Tinting only helps if you have had them tinted using a low-e film. A regular dark tint without low-e might actually make things worse.

Blackout curtains won't make things better. All that happens is that the heat is absorbed by the curtain instead of the floor, then radiates from the curtain into the room. The only way to stop heat gain through the window is to use a low-e film (to reflect the radiant heat back to the outside), and/or to use insulated glass (double-pane, preferably with argon fill) to stop conductive heat from heating up the inside of the glass.