Solar Film for Conservatories / Windows

[Hanon]

Hi,

Has anyone used solar film for windows or conservatories?

Looking to reduce glare and heat loss (in winter) and gain (in summer).

Lots of adverts but does it actually work?

Thanks,

Hanon

[Paul - xxx]

Our school has some on south facing double glazed units. Professionally fitted internally it's been up over two years and still looks good and works excellently .. best few quid we spent! Those classrooms that have it now simply don't have an over-heating problem in summer. Never thought about heat loss in winter as they usually keep doors and windows open whatever the weather! Never had any issues cleaning it during holiday times either.

From the outside when it's bright outside it looks like a mirror finish, when it's darker outside you can see the tint in it, but it's not bad at all. From inside you can see the tint, but again it's perfectly reasonable.

When I go back again at 2pm I'll look up the supplier if the office staff are in and see if I can get a pic for you if you like .. and I'll post back after 6pm when I finish .. ;)

[Paul - xxx]

Sorry to not get back yesterday evening ... the following were taken with my mobile phone camera ..

Inside view ..

view ..

to my previous comments ...

The solar film on it's own is not good enough to stop glare when it's bright sunlight!

Only the top two rows of window panes are coated, the inside view shows this best, you can see the brighter edges around where the film is on each pane. The lower panes are covered with paper to display childrens work, and I've obscured kids faces in pictures ....

It works really well as an insulator for heat and cold, but not so good for glare. The teachers comments were that on 'normal' UK days, sunny, cloudy, or overcast days it's great all-round, but in summer or bright winter days when the sun's directly shining it it needs extra help such as vertical blinds to keep glare out.

It was put in by a glazing firm local to us (Doncaster) and we don't know the original film source, sorry. I do know the grade we had wasNOT the darkest, it was somewhere in the middle of the available shades.

Altogether, probably not as good as I originally said, but not bad! It's definitely worked as an insulator though ... even though I thought it would be better on glare than insulation!

[root]

We replaced our old, 10mm polycarbonate conservatory roof a few months ago. The new one is 25mm opal (the old poly was clear) "X" wall stuff. We opted for "Heatguard" to reduce solar gain which with the old roof meant we were getting summertime temps of 45 deg. C during bright sunshine.

The new roof doesn't seem to have reduced the room temperature significantly. During the recent sunny spell (which, retrospectively we may refer to as "summer 2011") we still got temperatures of 40+ and a non-contact thermometer pointed at the roof showed it to be

48-50 deg C. on the sheeting itself. It also makes the rooms adjoining the conservatory a *lot* darker.

However, on the plus side, the drumming from rain hitting the roof is much quieter than with the old double-wall stuff. YMMV