Awnings can keep your home cooler. They can also reduce your air conditioning expenses. And if you're installing or replacing air conditioning equipment, awnings will allow you to reduce the size of equipment needed to effectively cool your home.

Here's how awnings do all this: Windows get to be hot spots during warm weather. Heat pours into a home through windows and raises interior temperatures quickly. Indirect sunlight -- reflected from the ground, sidewalks and other buildings -- compounds the effects of direct sunlight. And as the direct and indirect sunlight pass through the window, the temperature of the glass rises and radiates additional heat into the house.

Shading those windows with decorative fabric awnings is one of the most effective ways of reducing solar heat gain during the hot months. Awnings block most of the direct sunlight. They greatly reduce the amount of indirect sunlight that enters a window. And they keep the window cooler, which reduces the heat radiated from the glass.

Studies conducted by the American Society of Heating and Air Conditioning Engineers a few years ago confirm this. The studies found that fabric awnings reduce heat gain by 55 to 6t5 percent on a southern exposure and by 72 to 77 percent on a western exposure.

Savings on operating of air conditioning will pay for the awnings in a short time. How soon depends on your windows, their number, type, the amount of wall space they cover and the direction they face. Added comfort and savings from awnings also depend on where you live and how much your air conditioner costs to run.

No two homes are exactly alike. No savings figures will be the same from one home to the next.

But with decorative fabric awnings to shade your home's windows, your homes will be cooler. Your air conditioning expenses will be less. If you are adding or replacing air conditioning, your initial expense can be less.