It’s not only about the roof, walls, and windows when it comes to energy-efficient home design. Energy-saving window blinds & their treatments can also have a big impact on your home’s energy efficiency. Discuss your interest in energy-efficient home design with Empire windows treatment while planning your new home or remodel.
Have you considered what kind of window treatments you’d like? It’s also crucial to think about what kind of window treatments you’ll need to make your home as energy efficient as you want it to be.
Energy-efficient home design may be difficult, but it is not. Passive design concepts can help you make your home more energy-efficient.
When it comes to windows, there are five primary factors to consider: orientation, window size, current or intended shading, glazing type, and window frame design, which includes the material used and the shape of the frames.
The existence or absence of eaves, as well as the depth of your eaves, will have an impact on your home’s energy efficiency. Remember that short-term cost savings during construction may result in large long-term energy costs.
According to the US Department of Energy, the most energy-efficient interior window treatments are:
Insulated Cellular blinds
This form, often known as honeycomb shades, combines energy economy with flair. Following the energy crisis, these shades were launched in the late 1970s to meet a need for window coverings that would cut consumers’ energy consumption.
Cellular blinds can increase thermal comfort by up to 5 degrees Fahrenheit. With their innovative, energy-saving design, they also work like insulation and protect your home from the cold.
Each honeycomb contains air pockets that can provide insulation. They are one of the greatest window covering options since they provide excellent light and temperature control. The energy-saving window blinds, on the other hand, are a major plus for both your comfort and your money.
Shades that roll up
At Empire windows treatment, blinds are some of our most popular window treatment solutions. For light management, they are a robust insulating choice that comes in light filtering and blackout variants
The blackout option, also known as solar blinds, is made of opaque material that allows for a view of the outside world.
Roman shades are a popular choice.
Beautiful fabrics and unique folds adorn these vintage colors. If you want to control light, this is a terrific alternative, and the shades can be made of a variety of materials, including thick cloth fabrics, wood, natural materials, and fiber products.
Heavier fabrics are often more thermally efficient and can be used for privacy, filtering sunlight, and room darkening.
Here are 5 Reasons to Consider Energy Efficient Blinds and Curtains
1. Affordability
Simply press a button, use remote control, or use a smartphone app to open and close motorized blinds. Window coverings are a proven way to limit solar gain and prevent heat loss, and if they’re this simple to open and close, you’ll be much more likely to remember to do so for your own and the environment’s advantage.
Furthermore, the ability to program them to open and close at predetermined periods means you may never have to bother about them.
2. Energy Conservation
Connecting motorized blinds and energy-saving window blinds allow the blinds to react independently to readings from temperature and sunlight sensors that are also linked to the smart hub.
As a result, the blinds will know when to close during the hottest portion of the day to save energy and when to open during a sunny winter day to enable the sun to naturally heat a room.
3. Integration with Smart Homes
Smart thermostats offer a pool of information to consider when deciding whether to open or close the smart blinds to save energy, including the time of day, the weather outside, and the temperature inside the home.
Using all of these data points, the thermostat can detect when a room is becoming too hot and close the shades instead of turning on the air conditioning, or it may detect when a room is becoming too cool and do the opposite.
4. Improves Sleep Quality and Aids in Waking Up
Nothing is more irritating than trying to fall asleep in a light-filled room or being startled awake by your alarm clock, and energy-efficient blinds in bedrooms can help with both of these issues.
Your bedroom will be as dark as possible if you choose motorized window blinds with the highest light-blocking opacity, which will improve your sleep quality. This step can be accomplished with traditional blackout curtains or blinds, but you will miss out on the opportunity for a more peaceful morning.
If you choose an energy-efficient blinds window with the highest light-blocking opacity, your bedroom will be as black as possible, which will improve your sleep quality.
5. Internal and external blinds
The interior blinds are the majority of the blinds. This is beneficial since inside blinds are easy to operate, install, and repair, yet are less effective at preventing solar heat gain.
Exterior blinds, on the other hand, are typically constructed with solar control in mind.
They can be operated manually or can be controlled by a remort. Exterior blinds are commonly made of wood, vinyl, aluminum, or steel.
hey, are superior to interior blinds in terms of solar management since they are more durable, have fewer gaps, and block sunlight before it enters through the window glass.
There are a few things you can do to improve your energy efficiency.
More energy-efficient windows should be installed.
Replacing your windows will almost certainly be the most expensive option on our list.
If you truly want to go all out with energy efficiency, however, an energy-saving window paired with energy-saving window treatments is a hard combination to top.
Specialist light filtering coatings designed to limit solar heat gain are commonly included with new double or triple glass windows.
Again, they come at a price – so it may be a time before you see a reduction in your energy bills – but they’re an effective way of lowering consumption and increasing comfort levels.
Curtains should have thermal linings.
When you think about thermal linings for curtains, you generally think of closing thick drapes to create a cozy ambiance in the winter.
Thermal linings, on the other hand, will keep the summer sun out just as well.
Although curtains can help with energy consumption and comfort, they don’t provide much in the way of light management, so if you want to take a break from the sun, you’ll be fully shutting out the world.
Compression straps are useful.
It’s not always practicable or inexpensive to replace all of the windows in your home, but don’t worry: some wonderful solutions can help single-glazed or older double-glazed window units operate better.
Compression strips – spongey self-adhesive strips that may be positioned to plug up any gaps left when windows don’t close as tightly as they formerly did – are perhaps the best and most cost-effective option.
They’re almost undetectable when the window is closed, and you can generally select a color that fits your window frames.
Window treatments
If you want to increase comfort in your house while reducing energy loss and costs, the best method to combine is to choose the correct energy-efficient blinds.
The good news is that you have a lot of options, including energy-efficient blinds, thermal curtains, and internal shutters (also known as “honeycomb shades,” “cellular shades,” or “solar shades”).
Each of these solutions has its own set of advantages, so if window coverings are something you’d like to investigate, it’s worth weighing the pros and cons of each.
