Did you know that both window treatments and window tinting can help you save energy? Lower your monthly electricity bill by installing window coverings.
Each October, the United States recognizes National Energy Awareness Month to encourage local governments, organizations and businesses to raise awareness about the importance of sustainable energy practices. One best practice, recommended by the Department of Energy, is to use window coverings, or attachments, to help conserve energy.
Window coverings offer a way to help lower heat in the summer and prevent heat loss in your home during the winter. Ultimately, this results in lower monthly energy bills.
How Do Window Coverings Work?
Window coverings like the products offered by JAG Window Tinting & Treatments are meant to lower heat and improve comfort inside your home.
According to the Department of Energy, during the winter months, about 30 percent of a home’s heating energy gets lost through its windows. This means your heating system has to work harder to be able to keep your home warm.
Meanwhile, during the summer months – when you are trying to keep your home cooler – your HVAC system has to work harder because the sun’s heat is filtering in through your windows. (In fact, the Department of Energy estimates that 76 percent of sunlight that filters onto a standard double-pane window enters the home to become heat.)
Window coverings, like window film and window treatments, can reduce the overall energy loss in your home by preventing the sun’s infrared rays from entering inside.
How Window Tinting Lowers Heat
Use window tinting as a window covering to help shield your home from high heat and lower your monthly energy bill.
3M™ Sun Control Window Film, Prestige Series is a window covering that is scientifically proven to help reduce the amount of the sun’s heat -producing infrared rays from entering into a home. This is due to the fact that the film, while thinner than a Post-It® Note, is constructed using hundreds of layers of film. Each layer is designed to deflect the sun’s unwanted rays.
What makes 3M™ Window Film, Prestige Series so unique is the way in which light waves are controlled as they pass through or reflect off the multiple layers of film. Compared to other films, the Prestige Series increases its performance at a faster rate as the sun’s angle increases. According to 3M, “All window films are tested when the sun is perpendicular to the window. 3M™ Prestige Series Window Films are tested when the sun is high, at the hottest part of the day.”
The heat literally bounces off the window when it is covered using Prestige Series window tinting. This means less temperature pockets closer to your windows. This also means that your HVAC system won’t have to work as hard.
How Window Treatments Lower Heat
Meanwhile, window coverings like window treatments – from shades, roller shades, blinds, plantation shutters and the like – are all designed to help block heat.
Insulated cellular shades, like Hunter Douglas’ state-of-the-art Silhouette® Window Shadings, are even more effective at lowering heat. The shades are constructed using pleated materials designed to fold up (like an accordion) at the top of the window. They contain more than one-layer of material, which forms a honeycomb cross-section. The air pockets that get trapped inside the honeycomb act as insulators, reducing the conduction of heat through the window.
According to the Department of Energy, “In heating seasons, tightly installed cellular shades can reduce heat loss through windows by 40% or more, which equates to about 10% heating energy savings. In cooling seasons, cellular shades can reduce unwanted solar heat through windows by up to 60%, reducing the total solar gain to 20% when installed with a tight fit.”
Once again, the heat is blocked by the shades. This means that your home’s central heating and cooling system does not have to work as hard.
Adding Both Window Coverings Doubles the Energy Savings
When you add both window film and window treatments as window coverings to your home, you are doubling your efforts to prevent heat from coming in (during the summer) or leaving (during the winter). This means that your central heating and cooling system is not having to make up for temperature pockets near your windows.
There are also many other benefits to installing both window film and window treatments together.
JAG Window Tinting and Treatments is both a 3M™ Authorized Window Film Dealer and a Hunter Douglas Priority Dealer. The company has staff trained on the installation of both products and can help you to find the right solution for your home. Book an appointment today by calling 321-631-2100 or emailing [email protected].
