Reduce Heat Gain in your Home with Plantation Shutters
Most of us really look forward to the summer months with the prospect of warmer weather and longer hours of daylight. One disadvantage with the rise in temperatures, however, is the interior of your home can become much hotter too. In fact, studies have shown that 20% of homes throughout the UK are prone to overheating. Although this means your central heating bills will naturally reduce you could be spending money elsewhere on ventilation and air conditioning units to keep your home cooler. Although we’re not suggesting that plantation shutters alone will prevent your home from overheating this summer, we are going to explain below why they are a good choice for reducing heat gain.
Internal shading has been proven to reduce heat gain
Window coverings like shutters and blinds provide internal shading which according to the experts at Shade IT from the BBSA, can reduce the temperature inside a room by anywhere between 8 and 13 degrees Celsius. That is a considerable reduction and using shutters is certainly better for the environment than air conditioning systems. Shutters can be used for internal shading purposes in rooms throughout the home including living rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and conservatories. With window shutters you can open your windows at the same time and therefore help to ventilate your room too, and unlike blinds and curtains, shutters won’t move or flap around in the breeze.
How do shutter blinds reduce heat gain in homes?
Shutter materials can reflect the sun’s rays away from a room and control light and glare. The shutter colour you choose can also play a part too, with white shutters the most effective at reducing heat gain as they reflect light away opposed to absorbing it. According to research, shutters can reduce solar energy transmittance (Gtot) through a double-glazed window from 0.84 to 0.24 Gtot.
What is the best style of plantation shutter for reducing heat gain?
Because they cover the entire window, full height shutters are the best option for reducing heat gain. If you consider the amount of glass in large living room bay windows and conservatories, it is no surprise that these rooms are prone to getting so hot during the warmer months. Full height shutters are therefore better than café style shutters which only cover part of the window. They are also better then solid shutters which would be effective at reflecting light but offer very little in the way of ventilation. With the easily adjustable louvres on full height shutters, you can set them at an angle to get the internal shading just right and help to keep your room cooler.
Will shutters with specially integrated blinds reduce heat gain too?
Shutters with integrated blinds are chosen for bedrooms to block out as much light as possible and allow you to get a better night’s sleep. They are especially popular for kids’ bedrooms. The short answer to the question, will shutters with specially integrated blinds reduce heat gain, is yes. They will obviously increase levels of internal shading and as we mentioned earlier, this will reduce heat gain in a room. However, there is a reason why they are not quite as effective as standard shutters and that is because when the blind is pulled down this reduces ventilation considerably. If you really want to reduce heat gain in a room, you are better off choosing standard full height shutters.
In conclusion
You may have already been aware that shutters are a great form of insulation and therefore effective at keeping heat inside a room, but a lot less is made of the fact shutters can reduce heat gain too. So, we really hope this article has been useful to you and you have discovered something you didn’t already know about plantation shutters.
If you live in the North East and are interested in having wooden shutters installed in your home, get in touch with the Newcastle Shutter Company today. We offer a FREE home consultation in which we’ll visit your property and discuss your options.