In these times of economic crisis and hardship more and more people are looking for additional ways to save heat and energy within the home. Afterall if you are paying for heating there is no point letting it escape through non-insulated areas of your home.
When we talk about insulating the home, the first thing that pops into most peoples heads is loft insulation. Double glazing is another area most people are familier with, but did you know you can increase the effictivenes by choosing the right window covering, or more specifically the blind fabric?
As more and more companies come around to the idea of producing and selling ‘green products’ you will see a lot more emphasis put on energy savings and so on. In my opinion thermal blinds are going to be big in 2009, as they only just made an appearance nearer the end of 2008.
You may be wondering what makes the difference between a normal blind and a thermal, or energy saving blind.
The most obvious and important difference is that thermal blinds use a aluminium foil backing which helps trap heat within the room. This alone works very well at reducing heating expenses.
Another way to keep heat in is to minimise the area between the sides and bottom of the blind and the recess. This can be achieved by buying made to measure blinds at a bare minimum, or a more effective approach is to purchase a cassette blind with guide rails and rubber bushes.
The choice of blind type also plays an important role in how much energy you do or do not conserve. The most effective blind type would the the roller blind as it has no holes or gaps for the hot air to escape. A bad choice of blind in terms of energy saving would be the vertical blind as it has a lot of gaps for the air escape.
As you may have noticed throughout this article I have focused on saving energy on your heating bills by conserving heat. But as you will know, money is also wasted on cooling the room down on hot summer days. The great thing about most of the points above is that they work in reverse aswell. For example the reflective backing you find on thermal blinds also helps reflect the suns heat, which keeps your room cool in the summer months.