Maybe you have heard through the grapevine that there are some curtains that can help you ease up your electricity bills just by… hanging them in the right place.
These quite sophisticated energy-efficient “devices” not only work small miracles when it comes to protecting your home and wallet, but they also look nice, elegant too.
Before looking for the right energy efficient curtains, you can take a peek at our selection of the best curtains for many situations.
Why buy energy efficient curtains? There are so many reasons for that… For instance, windows are responsible for 25% of annual heating and cooling costs in older houses, but this number can raise up to even 40%. You can go for high-performance windows, but even they need blinds, insulated shades, blackout thermal curtains and so on… More money, that is.
Furthermore, no window is yet adjustable to weather conditions- the sun tends to be stronger in the summertime, right? 🙂
And this is how we go back to energy efficient curtains. What are they, anyway?
Well, this energy efficiency system is made of four different layers that help prevent heat transfer, block light and soften down the noise.
For those of you who like the technical info, the energy efficient curtains consist in:
- an outer layer of decorative fabric
- a layer of reflective film that sends the heat back into the room
- a vapor barrier to block the foam’s absorption of humidity
- a core layer of high-density foam that protects the window from exchanges of heat and sound
Your windows are doing good and bad things at the same time. They let sunlight inside and odors outside, but they let heated/cooled air outside and influence the inside temperatures by allowing the the heat gain/loss to affect it.
The energy efficient curtains protect your home from the four important types of heat loss (convection, radiations, infiltration and conduction) that happen through your windows. In English? These curtains help heat to enter or leave your house.
Therefore, in the winter time the energy efficient curtains protect the heated air inside from getting cooled or going outside the house. The opposite happens in the summer: the cooled air inside gets protected against being heated or going outside.
As a plus, energy efficient curtains keep the outside noise... outside and, depending on the type of curtains you have, may almost completely block the light from entering the room.
Head on to our selection of the top 5 insulated curtains to find out what’s trending in 2015.
Insulated curtains (that’s the easier way to call them) help you set the furnace low during the winter and not turn on your air conditioner in the hot summer time.
The insulated curtains are less expensive than the energy-efficient windows and may cause an R-rated (this indicates the energy efficiency) heat transfer, similar or even better than some energy-efficient dual-pane windows.
From time to time you do need to open the insulated curtains to prevent humidity, especially in the winter or when living in humid climates.
For easy cleaning, you may spray the curtains (while hanging, of course) with a spray-on upholstery cleaner and vacuum them after that. When in need, you may dry clean your curtains (if the process is not immersive).
Some of you might want to try an energy audit for the home as a first step. This is a great thing to do when you afford it – let the specialist decide which solution works best for your home: storm windows, new windows or some energy efficient curtains!
