Will honeycomb shades REALLY help reduce heat on a sunny day?

once the heat is inside your house, where else is it going to go? it doesn't get reflected back through the glass. so no, shades don't keep the heat down. you have to prevent the heat from getting into the house in the first place. double paned windows, eaves, window shade overhangs, trees, etc.

Who is the shade manufacturer. Your real problem I believe is uninsulated glass, No argon not Low E. Sure Cell shades help but possibly more to reduce heat loss at night, but there is no reason it wont help daytime to. Yes a good investment all around, Why not run your blower, it is free heat. Several companies make them, Also insulated curtains. What Co offered these R 4.5 shades

The house is actually a townhouse (condo), so it's unlikely the would allow awnings since the window is in the front of the building. Currently the windows are double-paned, but are 17 years old. I would be allowed to replace the glass panels of the windows with something more efficient, as long as they aren't noticeably any different in appearance from the outside.

You seem to be saying the honeycomb shades won't reduce heat at all, and if that's true, they should not be legally allowed to claim that they reduce heat. In theory these shades MIGHT work if they simply slowed the transmission of heat enough to prevent it from heating up the room. Granted this would cause the inside of the window frame (between the inside of the window and the shade) to get hotter (due to trapping the heat inside the frame) if this happened then maybe it could cause damage over time though, right? More likely, the heat would make it's way into the room via the sides of the shade though, right?

J.

a division of Hunter Douglas.

True...the double-paned windows are not filled with any gas.

A division of Hunter Douglas. Anyway, the R 4.5 (or whatever) may be a bunch of hype..in other words it's likely the R value at the CENTER of the shade but doesn't take into account the inevitable gaps on the sides of the shades.

Just because a company says "this shade is R 4.5" does not mean I have good reason to TRUST that it's not an inflated number. That's why I'm asking here if anyone tried these shades for heat on a sunny day and if they REALLY work.

By the way I've tried running furnace's blower to try and suck some of the air out via the return duct, but the room only has one return vent and it doesn't suck out enough air to cool it off here noticeably. A company makes a "register booster" that boosts the air flow out of a supply vent. What if I bought one and reversed the polarity of the fan? Maybe this unit could blow out enough air (into the return vent) to cool off the room.....or does that sound like it would not work?

Jeff

Jeff

Think aluminium foil.

$2.00.

Shiny side out.

I bought some dual honey combed shades for some windows last spring. My bathroom window is 48x48 and non opening. I bought top down, bottom up light filtering. Works well and reduce the heat gain some (WAG 10-20%). I also bought an shade for the front window, 31X65. Light filtering, that was an mistake should have been light darkening. I now have an blanket over the window most of the year because the light streams into the tv room and in the afternoons you face the window to watch tv.

I am surprized that the window film did not help more. Here in the SW some use film for the windows with great success. Personally I like the shade screens. They go on the outside of the window and can block up to 90% of the sunlight. I put them on my last home and they worked well. Now when the guys are not so busy this winter I will do this one as well.

As a general rule, block the heat before the window for best operation. That is why they say that curtains do little in blocking heat from windows.

Anything on the inside I would think would not be effective from blocking heat, Once it gets past the inside of the glass it is still heat on the inside of the house no matter what object intercepts it.

Best solution for existing windows would be some sort of shade screening on the outside to block a percentage of light/heat before getting to the window.

Hey I saw this and I actually might have an answer. Look for a local window tinter. Read on.

Last year we bought a house in sunny Arizona. We did not get the low e glass option. a friend referred me to a local tinter that suggested he install special window tint to the outside of the window. I soon found out it's important on dual pane windows to install it on the outside.

What I've gathered. Installing it on the inside will allow the heat to build up between the two panes. Eventually causing a seal burst.

Honestly it made a huge difference in the house. I can send you a site about flat glass tining. Email me.