Green your home with cellular shades

The green angle

The Kyoto protocol of 1997 and the Copenhagen agreements of 2009 are signs that the world is taking global warming very seriously. Whether or not you believe in the controversies of man-induced global warming, you probably agree that a sound investment in energy saving technology can be a boon to your household finances.

Controlling light inflow with cellular shades

For starters, purchase and installation of a window shade is a good investment simply because it gives the homeowner an improved ability to control the inflow of light. Controlling the inflow of light also helps control the amount of heat that enters. The homeowner has several choices in window shades. The most novel types include pleated shades, honeycomb shades and cellular shades, and bamboo roll up blinds.

Examples of cellular blinds

Roller shades are a type of outdoor window shades that are simple, consisting of a polyester, canvas, bamboo or other material that can be rolled up onto a roller using a spring-mechanism. The oldest roller shades may have been cheap and tacky, but new materials make roller shades appropriate for a modern stylish home. Bamboo roll up blinds have a natural look that surpasses their fabric counterparts in stylishness.

Venetian blinds

Venetian blinds are another kind of outdoor window shades consist of vertial or horizontal slats about an inch to several inches in width. The slats can be individually and simultaneously rotated with a miniature pulley mechanism (through a rotator rod usually) which controls the amount of light that enters.

Pleated shades and honeycomb shades

Pleated shades are very simple, consisting of a stiff material that is folded into many pleats. The pleated shades can be raised as simply by compression action, using the pleat-folds to make the shade compact and rest against the top of the window. The pleats form a honeycomb shape when viewed from the side. The little honeycombs are also reminiscent of cells (much like Robert Hooke's observations of the biological kind!)

Dual purpose of shades

Each of these window shades may be placed on the outside of the home to stop the sunlight from entering the house. Interior shades stop light, but not the heat. Why? Because the light enters and is reflected by the shades. After reflection, some of it still makes its way into the house as both visible and thermal energy. By placing an outdoor shade at the window, the light is prevented from every entering in the first place.

Cellular and honeycomb shades

What about during the winter when a draft or cold air can still seep in through seams in the window frames whether or not there are outdoor shades? There's a solution for that too. A type of shade known as a cellular shade or honey comb shade can help trap heat. These shades come as multi-layered and pleated, but arranged in such a way that the pleats trap air in between them. Viewed from the side, the side-by-side pleats form a honey comb structure. Using these shades can dramatically increase the heat retention of your home. You can even check for the R-factor of many interior shades today to help you select one that is most ecological or energy saving. The R-factor is a number that measures the thermal retention or transmissivity of the different shades.

Insulation

The canonical principle of insulation holds true for the honey comb shades. Pockets of air not only get heated up by the sun light, but they also help reduce transmission of thermal energy.