The challenge of maintaining a consistent and comfortable level of cooling in your home during the summer can be made more difficult by heat gain through your windows. This type of heat gain, or increase in heat inside your home, happens because of warming sunlight that shines into your indoor spaces and increases overall temperatures. Reducing heat gain will solve these problems by keeping sunlight out and preventing indoor temperature increases from that source.
There are several different types of window treatment options that will help in significantly reducing heat gain to keep your home’s interior cooler.
- Window treatments and films: Reflective and sun-blocking window treatments reduce heat gain by preventing sunlight from getting through the windows and entering your home. Reflective treatments reflect sunlight away, while blocking treatments keep sunlight from making it through the window. Sunshine that doesn’t get into your home doesn’t have the chance to increase temperatures.
- Drapes and curtains: Your drapes and curtains are also a major source of sun blockage. Close drapes and curtains during the day, especially on windows that receive a considerable amount of sunshine. Medium-colored drapes with a white cloth or plastic background will reduce window-based heat gain by almost a third.
- Window shades: Roll-type window shades that pull down to cover the window can block substantial amounts of sun-based heat gain. Two-tone shades with a more reflective white side toward the window and a darker side facing inward are the best for reducing heat gain.
- Mesh window screens: These types of screens diffuse the sun’s radiation, reducing heat gain.
Awnings: Covering and shading your home’s windows with awnings will block large amounts of sunshine and reduce heat significantly. By putting an awning over south-facing windows, you can cut heat gain by as much as 65 percent. An awning over west-facing windows can cut heat gain by up to 77 percent.
Arpi’s Industries Ltd. is an HVAC and home comfort services company in Calgary, Alberta. Contact us today for more information on how to reduce heat gain through windows and for help finding the window treatments and supplies that will cut down excess heat in your home.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about reducing heat gain and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Arpi’s services Calgary, Alberta. Visit our website to see our special offers to get started today!
