A single pane of glass can lose as much as ten times the amount of heat as an equivalent area of insulated wall. How much heat your home is losing depends on the size and orientation of windows as well as the strength of the window frames and glazing components.
Your window furnishings also play a significant role in reducing heat loss during winter. By ensuring you have quality window furnishings and opening and closing your curtains or blinds at the right time, you can reduce your bills by making your home more energy efficient.
Using Sunlight to Warm Your Home
East, west and north facing windows get sunlight while south facing windows receive almost none. During the day, your windows let in more warmth through radiant energy than what escapes, even during most of the winter. This is because while sunlight can get through the glass, the window doesn’t allow the infrared radiation back out.
You can increase the energy efficiency of your home by tactically keeping blinds and curtains on sun facing windows open while keeping ones that aren’t getting any sun closed. Automated blinds and curtains can make this process simple as you can program them to open or close depending on where the sun is.
Closing Your Curtains or Blinds at Night
During the night, windows can get extremely cold, especially if they are single glazed. If you’re trying to maintain a temperature of 20? in your home, the temperature on the surface of windows can drop to 7? on single glazed or 14? on double glazed at night.
Curtains and blinds act as an extra barrier to radiant heat loss, providing both insulation and reducing draughts. Depending on how thick your window furnishings are, they can bring the surface temperature between 16? to 20?, virtually eliminating heat loss. For this reason, you should ensure you always close your window furnishings as soon as the sun sets during winter.
What Kind of Window Furnishings Work Best?
As long as you are using closely woven, close fitting internal window furnishings like curtains or blinds, you should be able to insulate your windows and increase the energy efficiency of your home. Ensure a snug fit on both sides of the window and at the top of the blinds or curtain to stop warm air from moving down behind it.
Need New Curtains or Blinds?
At Lahood Window Furnishings, we pride ourselves on delivering the highest quality curtains and blinds in New Zealand.
To find out more about our products or to book a free consultation, please contact us online.
