How To Keep Cool This Summer Using Your Blinds or Curtains

Keeping your home cool during the summer months can be a real challenge here in the UK. Historically, homes in the UK were designed to trap the sun’s rays and minimize heat loss during mild summers and cool winters. The problem is that warm days are no longer scarce during the summer months.

Our tips and tricks will help keep your home cool using just your curtains, blinds or shutters. 

Keep your curtains, shutters or blinds closed

By closing your curtains, shutters or blinds closed, you can block or reflect the sun’s rays, preventing the external heat from infiltrating your home. This trick works best if you ensure they are closed in the morning before temperatures rise during the day.

The benefits of choosing blackout products

Available on a wide selection of Clough’s made to measure Roman Blinds, Roller Blinds and Curtains, blackout products are the perfect solution in keeping your home cool during the summer months.

Blackout products are great at insulating against both temperature extremes, keeping your room warm in winter and reflecting heat back outside in summer. This in turn helps keep energy bills low and maintains a comfortable environment all year round. 

Blackout products also have the added benefits of both protecting your chosen fabric and furniture from fading and will keep even south facing rooms dark all day long.

How to keep your house cool with shutters

Shutters are a great way to block out heat and keep your home nice and cool. The top advantage of louvered shutters is that the louvres can stay closed while your windows are open. If your room becomes too hot, simply close the louvers, shading your room from the sun’s rays whilst allowing air to continue flowing into your space. 

You should aim to keep your shutters closed between 10am and 4pm to avoid sunlight and heat transferring into your rooms. Instead, trying opening your shutters early in the morning and late in the evening when the temperature is much lower.

Shutters also have the added benefit of protecting your personal items and wooden floors from fading in the sun, keeping louvres shut or tilted upright will help keep the sun’s powerful rays away.

Upgrade your blinds to motorized

Our made-to-measure curtains and blinds are all able to be motorized, meaning you can control and program them with the click of a switch or even your phone - and it’s more cost effective than you would think!

Motorized blinds can be automated close during the hottest parts of the day and open when the sun disappears, maximizing your ability to keep your home cooler.

Keeping conservatories and rooms with large windows cool

As temperatures continue to rise over the summer many people are finding their conservatories unbearably hot, resembling more of a greenhouse than a garden room.

Our solution is EnviroFilm - a specialist film that attaches to your glass with an adhesive that is installed by a team of experts. It is installed internally to the underside of your existing roof or the inside of your windows.  Once installed it reflects radiant heat from the source - that being in the summertime from the sun or the wintertime from the internally generated heat. 

EnviroFilm is extremely flexible as it can be put on both glass or polycarbonate roofs and windows and are much more cost effective than fitting a full room of blinds. EnviroFilm is as effective at retaining heat in the winter as it is at reflecting the sun in the summer, offering a great all year round solution without covering up your windows.  

EnviroFilm even has options for those looking for added privacy to large glass windows or conservatories, whilst allowing you to see outside clearly. Enviro Cool Grey provides a soft grey hue to the film for added privacy and Enviro Reflective offers complete privacy as the outside is mirrored. Plus, the anti-glare layer ensures that you can watch TV without interference.

If you're interested in making your home more thermally efficient, both warmer and cooler months, book a free consultation with our design team.

Our team will provide expert advise tailored to your home to ensure your home is not only beautiful but functional all year round.