When looking at window shades in Los Altos Hills, CA for your home, you may want to consider blackout window shades for rooms where it’s advantageous to prevent a lot of light from coming in. These might be bedrooms where small children nap during the day. These may be bedrooms where family members who work during the night need to sleep during the day. Or these may be bedrooms where there is simply a lot of outside light around at night.
Blackout window shades give you the highest amount of light control in a room. While you can’t completely block out all light, Hunter Douglas blackout window shades are made out of room darkening fabrics and feature blackout options that enable you to make a room as dark as is possible.
All window shades provide some light control. However, some materials work better at keeping light out than others do. Blackout window shades are manufactured with opaque materials and i thicker fabrics. The opaque materials may be hardwood, vinyl, fabric, or hybrid woods. They give optimal light control by minimizing the amount of light that’s allowed to enter room.
Blackout window shades from Hunter Douglas also feature customizable options that can enhance the room darkening ability of the window shades. One feature, for example, can prohibit light from seeping in through holes and seams in the window shades, which will make the room darker.
Any of Hunter Douglas’ window shades can be customized to provide room darkening capability. If you’re choosing a fabric for window shade that is thinner because you love the color, the look, and the texture, there are many liners that can be applied to the back of the window shade to add the blackout capability.
Blackout window shades have another advantage beyond light control. Because they are made out of heavier materials, or have a unique construction design like cellular window shades, blackout window shades also provide a lot of insulation.
Most of the heat loss in a house is through the windows (up to 40%). This results in the interior temperature of the house being uncomfortable and the HVAC system having to run more frequently to try to maintain a constant internal temperature. To compensate and try to make the temperature more comfortable, homeowners tend to turn the thermostat up in cold weather and turned the thermostat down and hot weather. All of this leads to much more energy consumption and much higher energy bills.
If you have a home with older windows, they may be single pane windows (which are less energy efficient) or they may have developed air leaks as the windows have aged. If you’re not ready to invest in better-insulating replacement windows, then blackout window shades can provide the insulation you need to reduce air leaks.
While blackout window shades will not have quite the same insulating power as energy-efficient replacement windows, they will still do a fantastic job of insulating your house. This will result in more comfortable temperatures inside your home all year round, lower energy usage, and lower energy costs. You will immediately be able to feel the insulating power of blackout window shades as soon as they are installed and you and your family will be able to enjoy that effect.
If you’d like to learn more about blackout window shades in Los Altos Hills, CA, you can speak with our knowledgeable team at Windows & Beyond, Inc. You can visit our showroom at 4020 Fabian Way, Palo Alto, CA 94303, or you can contact us at (650) 938-8822 for a free in-home estimate.