Stay Comfortable with Window Treatments

There are many ways to keep your home cool this summer, and window treatments are a large part of the equation. First, identify how your home may be heating up, and use the right window coverings to solve those issues. We’ll show you ways to make the best decisions for your space. And then, show you a few of our favorite energy saving products.

What’s Heat Transfer?

When your home feels stuffy and uncomfortable in the summer, you can blame “heat transfer.” Even though the transfer of heat is unintentional, it happens. So, we’ve found that covering windows is an important consideration for overall comfort. But, there are always some cool summer days when you want to invite the sunshine in. Let’s discuss the 3 types of heat transfer and some flexible options to keep your home cool, but comfortable.

keeping your home cool by covering windows in texas

Convection: Here, insulating properties can provide a proper barrier to insulate from heat. It’s wind that takes heat to cool windows on a hot day and away from the warm windows on a cold day. 

Radiant Heat: When heat hits the surface of an object, that object heats up. (You’ll find your pets love these spots in the home- nice and cozy.) But for the rest of us, this is a problem. Once the interior heats up, there’s nowhere for that hot air to go.

Conduction: This is the way heat is conducted through solid objects. The glass of a window heating up on a hot day and transferring the heat to the interior is conduction. Insulation is key in this example to reduce the heat gain.

Combat Heat Gain with Treatments

Heat gain is a direct result of heat transfer, and homeowners use window treatments to prevent it. Window coverings provide a barrier between the exhausting temperatures outside and your personal comfort inside. Window shades will help reduce radiant heat by blocking the sunshine. The floor to ceiling window depicted in this photo shows sunshine extending throughout the entire room-hot stuff! Sunshine will heat up every surface and cause the air to quickly do the same. 

windows with shades preventing heat transfer in Texas
Duette® Honeycomb Shades

 

Energy Saving Options

In the window treatment industry, honeycomb shades are the top choice in energy saving shades. Their cellular structure and air pocket design both create a barrier, trapping warm air in the summer. This keeps the exterior air from impacting the temperature of air inside the home. Honeycomb shades look beautiful, too. These shades stack at the top of the window allowing your view to the outdoors. They provide the a beautiful aesthetic in your home. 

up close detail of operating wand for soft touch window treatment solution Houston, TX
Duette® Honeycomb Shades

Window treatment styles are always innovating. Here, the concept of air-filled cellular pockets are combined with the operating feature of roller shades. Sonnette Cellular Roller Shades are the result. These thermal shades offer a great barrier of protection, helping you keep your home cool in the summer, but also rolling up out of the way.

blue cabinetry and modern bar area with large picture windows and shades
Sonnette™ Cellular Roller Shades

The original energy efficient option for windows has always been draperies. Fabric drapes are known to protect your privacy and keep your home insulated. Today, depending on the amount of sunshine your home receives, you can customize the options for your draperies. An added liner provides more protection from the elements and is a welcomed upgrade for a Texas climate. 

dark olive drapery in modern loft apartment dining room
Custom Drapery

Plantation Shutters are used as an energy efficient option, too. They have adjustable louvers that, when closed flat, keep light from entering completely. The air flow stops as well. When sunshine stays out, there are no surfaces heating up and your home remains comfortable. The flexibility shutters offer is tremendous, even when the louvers are adjusted open, in a specific position, light enters, but the direct light doesn’t come into contact with surfaces, and air flow is reduced. Shutters offer a great barrier, framing in the window, and slowing air flow.

breakfast nook with black shutters floor to ceiling showing outdoors
Heritance® Hardwood Shutters

Now, when roman shades are lowered they act as a barrier to incoming light. The folds of fabric create shapes that reduce the air flow. Remember it’s, the air flow that raises temperatures in your home during the hot summer months, so reducing it will slow down that effect. Rolling roman shades can prevent heat gain, too, by stopping sunlight at the window.

roman shades in open floor plan home
Vignette® Modern Roman Shades

In addition, our Sheer Shades have a unique quality. They reflect sunshine away from the exterior of your home. Not only do sheer fabrics diffuse the direct light, but because they reflect sunshine outside, they reduce heat transfer. Even with the vanes open to the view, the difference of bare windows compared to covered is very noticeable.

Silhouette® Window Shades

 

Keep Your Home Cool this Summer!

In the end, there could be a number of reasons your home is heating up, but sunshine at the window is our number one concern. Don’t let bare windows prevent you from a comfortable summer in your home. Invite our window expert to your home for a FREE design consultation. We can evaluate your home and find window covering solutions that will keep your home looking beautiful!