My windows have horizontal mini blinds as well as curtains with valence boxes. The windows have two layer of glass.
On a cold night, what's a good way to reduce heat loss through the windows? Do the blinds make much difference?
In summer it can pay to reflect sunlight hitting east and west windows. Vinyl blinds let some light through and probably absorb some. Is there a better way to reduce solar heating through windows?
Everything helps, but heavy drapes will do more than the blinds.
In the winter you want to let that sun come in as much as possible. Thee are coatings that will help in the summer though.
Neither my nets nor my blinds do anything for heat. My biggest mistake was taking down my beautiful full length wall to wall curtaining that had separate thermal linings and replacing with the more modern lightweight ones. My house used to be SO cosy. Then come summer off would come the linings for a lighter look.
You could try black out curtains. They can be especially handy when you wish to have an afternoon nap and don't want heat and light in the room. They can also stop people peeping in at you when you're about your everyday business. HTHs Mr Beane.
If you can stop convection, that's probably like adding R-1. One winter in Vermont, relatives warped their wood stove running it red hot, but they were still miserably cold. The problem was their single-pane picture window. We sewed a curtain of bedsheets, stretched it across the window each night, and secured it with thumb tacks. The cabin was much more comfortable and the stove could be run low.
I don't know if heavy drapes would have worked as well. They don't necessarily stop convection.
A reflective surface can make an airspace with an R value much higher than 1. I have fixed windows for winter by gluing foil-faced kraft paper across them, but you can't look out until spring. I've also made curtains of printed bedsheets with space-blanket backings. As I recall, I used rubber bands in buttonholes to stretch the curtains tight across the window ledge at night, to stop convection. Rooms with those curtains were much warmer than winter than rooms with other curtains.
I was looking for more tips on efficient curtains, blinds, and shades.
Generally, it's the south windows that get solar heat in winter. The sun that shines from east and west is low and southerly, so those windows don't pick up much.
In summer, the sun is higher and spends a lot of time on the east and west, so those windows can pick up a lot of heat. The summer sun may be too high for much of its heat to shine through the south windows. So I'd come out ahead if I could make my east and west windows reflect more sunlight, but not my south windows.
Some reflective coatings can also reduce radiant losses at night. I wish I knew more about it.
Why don't you put them back up? One never knows when one may want privacy.
What color are blackout curtains on the street side?
Unlike blackout curtains, blinds can be adjusted to let light in while keeping the indoors obscure from outside. That's why they call them blinds.
Speaking of peeping, did you find Eliot Coweye's post distasteful? Do you think he was trolling me?
Blackout lining for draperies is white.
Thermal suede offer almost the same benefit without the disadvantage of every pin hole showing.
Cellular shades have up to R 3. Curtains with insulating liners help, liners are sold separatly. 1" R7.2" foamboard popped in at night is easy to do. Dont leave it in when the sun is out, I painted one dark and it cracked the glass. Paint the foamboard with latex and store when not used.
They had their day. Nothing lasts forever, or maybe some things do but not my curtains
That depends on what type of black out curtains you use.
I like nets.One can pick up good tips in AHC for keeping nets nicely washed and sparkling and people can't look in as they pass.
who? Are you quite mad?
My multi cellular blinds insulate well enough to ice up my low e 3/4 inch space thermopane windows on very cold days.
At night on clear nights anything covering the windows will slow the tranfer of heat from your body to pluto.
Cellular blinds... it looks interesting. I'll have to look for information on how they stand up to sunlight and repeated raising and lowering.
Not quite. Thanks for helping me calm down. Trolls love to make people mad.
I remember using foil-covered foamboard on windows.
That reminds me: some of my windows have internal screens that are easy to pop in and out. If I fastened foil-faced kraft paper to the glass side of a screen, that would give me an air space with an R value of about 3.2.
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