I know most people in the northern hemisphere have had a hellish summer. do you think it’s hot? Well, tell me…” But I have to feel sorry for those who live in North Texas and have steel Quonset shacks for their shops. It must be ridiculously hot.

But the silly heat can be solved, or at least mitigated, by being a little smarter. [Wesley Treat] It was able to withstand the heat shield of this cleverly designed store door. When the temperature hits him above 42°C (sorry, it sounds a lot less apocalyptic than 108°F), his store’s south-facing roll-up door becomes a giant frying pan, dissipating the heat. It radiates into his shop and makes the air conditioner difficult to handle. His idea was to block the radiant heat with a folding barrier, but he mocked up several potential designs and measured the performance of each to see if it was worth the effort. His experiments showed that a layer of extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam insulation covered in reflective mylar performed better than either foam or Mylar alone.

The finished heat shield is a giant beast of tri-fold plywood that fits snugly against the door as things dry in the store. Due to the large temperature difference between the metal door and the inside of the shield, it is expected that the inside of the store will remain more comfortable. It is conceivable that the air between the door and the shield is still heated, and that convection could distribute all that heat throughout the store. But at least he’s giving his AC a fighting chance.

Along with great shop tips like this and his custom storage bins, [Wesley] A talented sign maker. he’s pretty funny too.