How To Use Window Treatments To Increase Your Home's Comfort And Energy Efficiency
Posted on: 29 November 2017
Installing window treatments inside your home can help keep your home's interior more comfortable through the year and lower your energy bill. Here are some tips and insight to help you use window blinds and curtains in this manner.
Window Blinds
Window blinds hung on the interior of your windows can be relatively inexpensive and easy to install yourself. There are blinds available in a variety of colors and materials to match your interior decor and add color to the interior.
Interior window blinds can prevent solar heat gain in your home during the summer, but they still allow light to filter into your home's interior.You can direct window blinds to slant downward or upward, for the direction in which you want the light to enter. Slanting the blinds upward allows the light to be diffused onto the ceiling in your home's interior. This provides light in the room to allow you to see, but does not let in any heat from the sun's rays. During summer, this is helpful to provide interior light without using electricity.
Be sure to close your interior blinds onto any direct sunlight throughout the day to block solar heat gain. Then, as the sun passes by the window, you can reopen the blinds to allow indirect light into the room and cooler night air after the sun has set.
Insulative Curtains
During summer and winter curtains providing insulation and light-reflective properties can keep your home comfortable. For summer, hang a curtain that can be shut against the incoming sun on the eastern, southern, and western windows to prevent solar heat gain.
You can easily buy and install curtain rods for you to hang the curtain panels in the window. Curtains that are light-in-color or have a light or white-colored backing will reflect the sun's heat back to the exterior of your home and prevent it from heating your home's interior.
During winter, curtains can also help keep your home warmer and prevent your home's heat from transferring through the window to the outside where it will be lost. For winter, it is best to hang curtains that are made of a thick, woven fabric and are lined with an extra layer of fabric. These two layers of fabric hold in a layer of air to provide insulation and block the outward flow of your home's heat. Curtains that hang all the way to the floor or that settle in the sill of your window help keep warmth inside the room better than curtains that hang in mid-air against the wall.
Visit a site like http://www.dschultzwallcoverings.com for more help.
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