When it comes to reducing monthly heating or cooling costs, you may be thinking you need to replace your windows. However, before you do that, you may want to consider another option. One of the best ways to reduce heating and cooling expenses is by ensuring your windows have fitted, “operable” coverings such as shades, blinds, draperies or curtains, or shutters, that have an energy-efficiency rating. Operable window coverings give you the ability to open or close them at any time during the day or night, or any time of the year. Custom Blinds & Design, with galleries in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, offers high-rated, energy efficient Hunter Douglas window coverings that can make a difference in lowering your heating and cooling costs.
Let’s take a look at some of the reasons for adding custom window coverings.
Enhance Energy Efficiency
When added to existing or new windows, attachments such as blinds, cellular shades, pleated shades, and solar screens can improve energy performance, create a more comfortable environment, and reduce glare, according to the Attachments Energy Rating Council (AERC). AERC provides consumers with third-party, verified information about the energy performance of residential window coverings.
The industry’s first cellular shade, Duette® Honeycomb Shades, made Hunter Douglas a pioneer in energy efficiency, and the first manufacturer to receive certification for interior window coverings from AERC.
Multiple Benefits
Window coverings provide a multitude of benefits when you think about how important it is to have them in your home. They can help with the loss of energy, regulate temperatures in your home, and lower energy bills.
- About 30% of a home’s heating energy escapes through windows.
- In cooling seasons, about 76% of sunlight that falls on standard double-pain windows enters to become heat. The exact savings will vary from the type of window coverings you have, to the climate where you live, to the season of the year.
Other reasons for having custom window coverings:
- Insulate your home by reducing air leakage from windows
- Control Solar Heat Gain Coefficient which can cause unwanted warmth in a room due to the amount of natural lighting
- Regulate temperature by controlling sunlight coming in at different times of the day, depending on the time of year
- Provide privacy at any time
- Energy savings
- Reduce cold drafts from windows
Variety of Styles
Hunter Douglas offers energy-efficient styles in a range of insulation levels. Many of these styles are designed to help lower your energy consumption and costs, whether it’s reducing heat loss in the winter or solar heat gain in the summer. Our Sales and Design Consultants can help you find the best window covering solution for your windows.
- Duette® Shades Custom Blinds & Design innovative honeycomb window treatment collection delivers the industry’s highest energy-efficiency rating. Available in vertical and horizontal pleats, our honeycomb blinds come in a wide range of fabric types, colors and shapes.
- Sonnette™Cellular Roller Shades One of the newest and most innovative window treatments on the market, Sonnette™ Cellular Roller Shades are a unique combination of easy to use, light filtering roller shades, and the superior energy efficiency found only in honeycomb shades.
Any style of Hunter Douglas window shades are rated energy efficient and can be lowered for privacy and optimum insulation, or raised for maximum light and view – they’re beautiful either way.
Operating Window Coverings for Maximum Energy Efficiency
Most window coverings are operable; however, three-fourths of window coverings are left in the same position every day, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Energy. Don’t forget to make necessary adjustments and know which coverings should be opened and closed throughout the day.
If it’s winter and the sun is shining, open the window coverings in the morning to allow the sun to heat your home through the day.
In the summer, when the temp is hot outside, be sure to keep window coverings closed to reduce heat gain. If you need natural light, open those window coverings that get indirect sunlight.
At Custom Blinds & Design in Omaha and Lincoln, you have the ability to see first-hand how our Hunter Douglas shades, blinds, and other window coverings operate, and you can experience the beauty and designs in our galleries. Let us help you decide which window coverings meet your needs. Stop by our showrooms or visit us online at customblindsdesign.com.