Energy Efficient Blinds and Shades: Creating Your Comfort Zone

Window treatments can go a long way toward boosting your home’s energy efficiency and keeping you comfortable. That’s because compared to insulated walls and ceilings, windows easily allow more heat to enter a room in summer, and more heat to escape in winter.

In fact, without energy-efficient window coverings, a home can lose up to 30% of heating and cooling energy through its windows.

How Window Treatments Improve Energy Efficiency

Window treatments help with a home’s energy efficiency by providing insulation, controlling solar heat gain, and by using natural light to reduce the use of electric light (called daylighting), which saves energy. Here’s a look at each and how they help create your comfort zone.

Controlling Solar Heat Gain in Summer

• During the day, close your window treatments to prevent the sun’s harsh rays from heating up a room, keeping it cooler (so your A/C doesn’t have to work as hard).
• At night, keep your window treatments closed to keep the cool air in.

Providing Insulation in Winter

• In winter, window treatments help insulate at the window, preventing heat from escaping and keeping a room warmer.
• Open your window treatments during the day so free solar heat from direct sunlight will warm your home.
• On cloudy winter days, close your window treatments to add an insulating layer to your house that will keep warm air in.
• At night, close your window treatments to add that insulating layer.

Leading Energy-Efficient Window Treatment Styles

• Duette Architella^® Honeycomb Shades — This style is the most energy-efficient cellular shade available, providing even greater insulation than the original Duette. That’s because its honeycomb-within-a-honeycomb construction has more layers of fabric and insulating pockets than other fabrics in the Duette line.
• Duette^® Honeycomb Shades — The original cellular shade, featuring a unique honeycomb construction that traps air in distinct pockets, for an extra layer of insulation at the window. Available for every window shape, including skylights and European-style tilt and turn windows, as well as French and sliding doors.

Adding Smarts to Your Shades

To capitalize on the energy efficiency you get from shades, you need to raise and lower them as necessary, depending on the time of day and time of year. But what if you’re not home, or simply busy?

Automated window treatments add convenience to your daily routine, while making it easier to save energy. With PowerView^® Automation, you can schedule your window treatments to move according to schedules you set. That way, they’ll be in the best positions to block heat loss when it’s cold or keep out harsh rays in the summer. And if you integrate your PowerView Hub with a compatible smart-home system, you can program your window treatments to adjust in response to light and temperature-sensor commands sent from that system.

The Importance of R-Value

R-Value measures a product’s ability to keep heat in and cold out, so the higher the R-value, the greater the insulation. An R-value of 4.0 can prevent up to 75% of heat loss through a window. The Duette Architella honeycomb shades have R-values ranging from 5.48 to 7.73, offering strong energy efficiency benefits along with distinctive style.

If you’re ready to improve comfort and energy efficiency in your home, we’d be happy to help you customize the right window covering solutions for your space.

West Coast Shutters | 250-585-4544 | joe@westcoastshutters.ca | westcoastshutters.ca