Sun-Blocking Blinds: Your Guide To Shade Solutions
As summer approaches, it’s an opportune time to invest in blinds to block out sun and heat effectively. Heat-reflective blinds for windows offer a stylish solution for maintaining a comfortable indoor temperature throughout the year.
Ruffell & Brown offers a wide range of custom blind solutions engineered to trap heat and reduce glare, significantly improving your home’s energy efficiency and aesthetic appeal.
With our expert guidance, you can select blinds tailored to your specific needs and preferences, ensuring functionality and style in your living space. Additionally, our team provides professional installation services, guaranteeing a hassle-free experience from selection to implementation.
Which Blinds Are Best At Blocking Ultraviolet Light?
Ultraviolet (UV) light damages our skin and can impact furniture, carpets, and artwork inside our homes. Although the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety confirms that UV exposure is essential for producing healthy levels of Vitamin D in our bodies, UV light is most commonly known for its harmful effects. Skin cancer, sunburns, aging skin and many eye diseases can be attributed in part to overexposure to UV radiation.
You might be surprised to know that even when opened, our sheer shades can block as much as 88% of harmful UV rays caused by direct sunlight, and that protection jumps to 99% when closed. Our natural shades are available in a wide variety of room darkening or privacy lining options, making them another tremendous light-blocking choice.
Take Extra Steps to Protect Valuables
For most homeowners, custom shades and blinds designed to block out the sun are a suitable way to protect their homes’ valuable contents. However, if you need to protect a unique heirloom or piece of art, the Canadian Conservation Institute takes the following steps to conserve these types of items:
- Minimize exposure to daylight
- Avoid exposure to unfiltered UV-emitting fluorescent lamps
- Apply a transparent, UV-absorbing film to windows
- Install UV-absorbing acrylic glazing in front of the artwork
Combine these steps with some of our light diffusing blinds, such as Parkland Wood Blinds, and you can guarantee your valuables will remain in mint condition for years to come.
Which Blinds Are Best For Minimizing Glare?
Depending on your home or business’s sun exposure, certain areas may require increased darkening and protection from UV rays. Spaces like home theatres, offices with computer screens, and restaurant dining areas can benefit from specific window solutions to help control the temperature and the sun’s blinding glare.
Choosing blinds designed to block out the sun in these sun-sensitive spaces is a great idea. A popular and high-performing option is Venetian blinds. Venetian blinds offer maximum light control while withstanding daily wear and tear in high-traffic homes and commercial spaces. With three different styles to choose from—metal, wood, or faux wood—these sleek window treatments are sure to elevate the look of your home.
Fun fact: Venetian blinds are believed to originate from Persia. In France, Venetian blinds are referred to as “Les Persienes.”
Want to know more about the pros and cons of room-darkening window treatments? Read our helpful blog on “Which is Better – Blackout Blinds, Draperies/Curtains or Shades?”
Which Blinds Are Best At Keeping Out The Heat?
Cellular honeycomb window shades can boost the energy efficiency of your home or business. They are known for their attractive closed-cell design that traps air and insulates windows from heat and cold. They also excel at sound absorption.
- When looking for honeycomb blinds, consider the pleat size. The smaller the pleat size, the better the blinds will regulate heat transfer into and out of your space.
Here are four stylish options to keep the summer heat out:
- Applause Honeycomb Shades by Hunter Douglas have a unique single-cell insulation that keeps warm air inside in cooler weather and hot air outside when temperatures rise.
- Duette Honeycomb Shades by Hunter Douglas amplify the energy-saving features of the honeycomb through a cell within a cell construction, offering the most insulation quality of any blind or shade on the market.
- Hunter Douglas Shutters reduce energy loss and keep your home comfortable year-round.
- Dual Roller Shades offer light filtering and privacy. Read more about how they might be “The Best of Both Worlds.”
Besides their cooling and warming capabilities, honeycomb blinds are available in a wide assortment of light-filtering fabrics that darken rooms and provide privacy. Their optional side channels stop light from sneaking around the outer edges, making them a great choice for rooms requiring maximum light control.
Other Features To Consider When Choosing Blinds
Now that you know which blinds block the heat and sun, here are a few more features to consider before choosing your window treatments.
- Window Shape – Honeycomb cellular shades can be customized to fit specialty-shaped windows
- Safety – Opt for a window covering solution with a cordless design to ensure the safety of your children and pets
- Operating Systems—Customize blind operation with a motorized system activated on your preferred schedule. The Hunter Douglas Skylift system is brilliant for automating hard-to-reach skylight shades.
- Heat Reflective Blinds for Windows—Also known as solar shades, heat-reflecting blinds manage the heat that transfers through your windows into your home. They have a highly reflective silver exterior that deflects the sun’s rays back outside and can reduce the heat passing through the window, decreasing air conditioning costs.
Ruffell & Brown Window Covering Centre – Your Source For Customized Window Solutions!
At Ruffell & Brown, we understand the importance of choosing the right window treatments for sun protection and decreasing home energy costs. Our talented experts regularly upgrade their product knowledge and stay current on all new technology entering the blinds and window treatments world. With so many different options, our team is here to help you discover the best blinds to block out the sun and heat from your home.
With our 110% price-match guarantee, you’re sure to find a blind that fits your budget. Visit one of our showrooms in Victoria, Nanaimo or Sidney, British Columbia, where Ruffell & Brown have happily serviced Vancouver Island since 1987.
Let our team of expert interior designers and professional installers answer all your blind and window treatment questions. Contact us today for a quote.
