Hi this is Wayne, owner of SkyShed. We want to be here for you 24/7 to provide support. Not only here in North America, but for you owners there as well. Email me any time with questions at info@skyshed.com. Don't IM me thru the forum because I may not check IMs here that often.
You can't paint the dome. No paint known to man will stick, as the material expands and contracts in changing temps. In places like Arizona and Florida, owners will sometimes install a tower A.C. unit in Bay, and cut a hole in the Bay hole for the exhaust port. This way you can keep the internal temps dewn at 20 C. during the day.
If you do add A.C. you also use 3/4" backer rod (normally used when fitting windows into houses, you don't see it when the window is installed) and temp. stuff the rod in between the wall and dome gap. This way you're not trying to cool down the whole neighbourhood.
We use it up here in Canada to keep high velocity snow out of the POD. I keep a drawstring laundry-type bag in a Bay with the foam in it. At the end of the night I have 3, 2 meter long lengths of the 3/4" thick foam backer rods, and I walk around in a circle inside the POD and stuff the foam into the gap between the wall and dome. Takes 30 secs to install, and the same to take away. Keeps high velocity snow out, and will keep cool temps in when you're using A.C.
When we designed POD , we never dreamed that astronomers in Australia would use it as well. It was only after a few dozen astronomers asked, and we found a dealer to distrubute there, that it became possible. St the same time we don't want the distance to take you think that we're not "here" for you. We work 7 days a week to support our thousands of owners around the world. If you have a question or a problem, there's a goof chance I'll have an answer. Email me directly.
Join the new groups.io POD group that we've just formed. We're migrating over from Yahoo groups. All the photo albums files and topics from yahoo should show up shortly. To join, email SkyShedPOD+subscribe@groups.io
We know you guys pay a lot more to get your PODs there. We don't want your support experince to be any less than those owning PODs in N.A. if we can help it.
CS!
Wayne Parker
Owner - SkyShed