Solar Control Film

[Rod]

Thinking about fitting some of this to our south-facing windows. I have found a few sellers online and have read what they have to say - and consulted old uk.d-i-y posts.

The sellers claim quite decent levels of heat reflection - certainly over 70% - are these achievable in a real world?

How easy would it be to fit to first floor windows with only ladder access? (I can clean the windows fine - but putting this film on appears to be a bit more difficult than that.)

Some of the sites show pictures of before/after regarding what it looks like from the inside. Do you continue to notice the film forever or do you simply ignore it after the first day or two?

Any recommended sellers? Any experiences?

[Colin Wilson]

If it's anything like the stuff they put on the windows where I work, it looks permanently gloomy outside with the film.

The film was also put on the inside, not outside.

[Rod]

There are lots of different specs. - some interior, some exterior. The advice (at least on one of the sites) is that sealed double glazed windows should have an exterior film - so the heat is reflected without ever entering even the glass. Which seems sensible enough.

I too am concerned about the possibility of perpetual gloom. But again, there are many specs. with different shading - I am hoping for minimal tinting effect (maximum clarity) but good heat reflection and some (modest) UV protection.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Even the K glass which people generally don't notice (unless there's some clear glass next to it, or a pane has been replaced and the tint doesn't match) has been found to result in significantly more use of lights inside those rooms, so even a level of tinting which is not obviously perceptable does significantly affect light levels.