Window Treatments from Innuwindow to Cool your Home this Summer

What Window Treatments Can You Put on to Keep the Heat Out?

As summer heats up, you must try to do everything you can to keep your home cool during the day. But if you notice your electric bill creeping up higher than it should be, your home may not be cooling as efficiently as it could be. Fortunately, installing window treatments like shades, drapery, shutters or blinds are solutions that make a big impact on your home’s energy efficiency with minimal effort.

What Window Treatments Stop the Sun from Coming Through the Window?

With so many types and designs available, adding new window treatments is an easy, stylish, and cost-effective way to either decrease or completely block the sun’s UV rays from heating up your home to assist in your home’s energy efficiency.

• Window blinds are an excellent choice for window treatments to take some of the work off of your cooling system. Our design experts can help you determine if horizontal or vertical blinds would best suit your needs based on your window sizes and shapes. Window blinds come in different types of materials such as natural wood, engineered wood materials, and tempered alloy metal.
• Window shades are an excellent solution for controlling the sunlight and keeping the heat out with the option to maintain your outside view. Different options for window shades include a sheer material for light filtering, printed shades for endless color and texture choices, woven wood shades for light blocking, and honeycomb or cellular shades engineered to create air insulation between the shade and window.
• Interior shutters can add an elegant New England touch to any home and can be made out of premium hardwood, polysatin, or hybrid compounds, all with excellent craftsman finishes. Not only do interior shutters help with blocking the sunlight and heat from your home, but they offer complete privacy and noise reduction. As an added bonus, this type of window treatment is considered a permanent improvement to the home and therefore increases your home’s value.
• Fabric drapery are a classic way to add or change a room’s focus. Our window treatment design experts can offer the best suggestions for complete sunlight and heat blocking. Pair drapery with a sheer material for the added option of partial sunlight blocking or filtering. With so many patterns and colors, you’re sure to find the perfect fit for stylishly increasing your home’s energy efficiency.

Finally, we recommend choosing light-colored window treatments because they work better at reflecting light. However, any material that will block the sunlight will result in a more energy-efficient home and more energy savings.

Do Blinds Help Keep the House Cool?

According to Consumer Reports, the use of window treatments such as blinds, shades, drapes and shutters helps a home maximize energy efficiency and therefore increases a home’s utility savings. The Department of Energy estimates that using window treatments can help reduce heat gain up to 45%. That’s a huge savings! What’s even better is that along with keeping the summer heat out, these energy-conserving window treatments also will help keep the cold out during the winter as well.

Should you Keep Blinds Closed in Summer?

Whenever we think about our home’s energy usage, we think about ways to make it more efficient to save money. We tend to focus on big ticket items like the furnace, AC unit, and insulation when increasing our home’s energy efficiency. Although it might seem counterintuitive to close out the light during the day, the use of window treatments during the summer months has been proven to help reduce energy usage. Closing the blinds during the day in the summer months for some immediate energy savings should be at the top of your list of easy ideas for increasing your home’s energy efficiency.

What are the Most Energy Efficient Window Treatments?

The US Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy measures how well insulation works at keeping heat inside or outside of your home. They have shown that insulated cellular shades have the highest ratings of all window treatments. The insulation formed by the air pockets in the honeycomb cross-sections increases the efficiency and reduces the conduction of heat through the window. In addition, both vertical and horizontal slat blinds are very effective at reducing summer heat in the home.

You can Find a Wide Selection of Energy-Efficient Window Treatments at Innuwindow!

Before another sizzling heatwave arrives this summer, cut energy costs by shopping the wide selection of energy-efficient window treatments from Innuwindow. Your AC won’t have to work as hard when you install our beautiful and energy-saving window treatments. Call 508.650.9922 or contact us today to set up your free design consultation!