Blinds between your windows and doors are a good low-maintenance option since you won’t have to clean them. But you should know how in-between blinds can affect the energy efficiency and overall heat reserve in your home.
At Opal Enterprises, our Naperville remodeling team is dedicated to ensuring that when we finish our work, you love your home. Let’s take a look at how in-between shades can affect your home’s energy efficiency.
What Makes Glass Energy Efficient?
To understand the effects blinds have on doors and windows, first, we have to know what exactly makes a door or window with glass energy efficient. The three necessary traits are:
Low-E Glass Coating
Low-E coatings help block heat transfer into your home. A Low-E (“low emissivity”) coating is a microscopically thin, almost invisible layer of metal or metal oxide applied to the window.
During warmer months, it lets visible light in while reflecting infrared and ultraviolet rays, preventing interior heat buildup. In colder weather, it blocks heat from escaping indoors. By reducing temperature fluctuations at the glass surface, Low-E limits the amount of conductive heat loss or gain through the window.
Argon Gas
Utilizing argon gas between double panes of glass creates an insulating barrier. Argon is an inert noble gas that conducts little heat. When sealed between windowpanes, it creates a layer of still air that inhibits conductive and convective heat transfer.
The double pane design sandwiches the argon layer, so the heat has to conduct through two layers of glass and the argon to pass between the indoor and outdoor environments. This creates a buffer that significantly slows temperature transfer for improved insulation. By trapping heat inside during winter and keeping interiors cooler in summer months, double panes with argon optimize thermal performance.
Double Panes
Using double panes of glass with a sealed airspace between them also improves insulating properties. The double panes create two surface barriers to conductive heat flow rather than the single layer of a standard single-pane window.
Air is a good insulator but can circulate freely in single-pane designs, transferring heat between indoor and outdoor environments via convection currents. By sealing the window airspace, still, air is trapped to resist conductive and convective heat exchange. This impedes temperature transfer much more effectively than a single thickness of glass.
Double panes also eliminate conduction losses through the frame compared to two single-pane windows mounted in one frame. Their design maximizes energy efficiency through multiple barriers to heat flow.
How do Blinds Between the Glass Affect the Energy Efficiency?
Unfortunately, when you choose between the glass blinds, it replaces the seal between double panes. In turn, it lowers the window’s U-Factor, which is how well it’s insulated.
This is because there is no argon gas in the pane or low-E coating. The silver oxide that makes Low-E coating scratches easily, and there isn’t enough space with the shades to avoid this.
So despite the privacy and style internal blinds bring as window treatments, they won’t help lower your energy bills, but quite the opposite. However, other options still allow you to have energy-efficient windows and in-between blinds.
What Is an Alternative that Still Has Between the Glass Blinds?
An alternative is to find windows with triple panes to get the insulated glass and the between-the-glass blinds, which gives two spaces in between. The first space holds the blinds of your choice in place, while the other space has a Low-E glass coating and the argon fill.
Being able to have the blinds along with energy-efficient windows, the triple pane is more expensive because you’re using more glass. Also, to accommodate triple panes, you will need to have bigger frames.
So, depending on how much you’re willing to spend, you’ll need to decide whether the blinds between glass panes are an absolute need or if you’re satisfied with energy-efficient windows for a lower price.
Remodeling Options We Provide at Opal Enterprises
Our exterior remodeling team in Naperville offers a wide range of windows and doors. We can work with you to determine the style, material, and whether or not you want in between the glass shades for added privacy.
We work with top door and window manufacturers that can customize double-pane or triple-pane options. By working closely with our partners at Kolbe, Andersen, and ProVia we’ll find the products you need.
For windows, we offer fiberglass, vinyl, wood, and composite materials guaranteed to last for years to come. You can choose from a wide selection of types of windows, such as:
- Awning
- Bay
- Casement
- Double hung
- Garden
- Kitchen
- Picture
- Single hung
- Sliding
- Sunroom
What Options do You Have For Doors?
Our Naperville installation team can also install any door in any part of your home. Here are the door types we can install:
- Entry
- Front
- Patio
- Storm
- Sliding
Doors are also customizable, so when you meet our team, we’ll listen to all your needs and make sure we install a door that you love.
Contact Us to Start Your Window or Door Installation Today
Our Naperville team of installers at Opal Enterprises can help you decide whether the glass blinds are right for you. We can give you a free remodeling quote if you need 2 or more windows installed or a new door.
Contact us today to get started with your Naperville remodeling project.
