My little house, having been built less than four years ago, is very well insulated and stays warm in Winter. The only trouble is that it gets far too hot in Summer and, because of the insulation, once it gets hot it stays hot!
I just had to find a solution - something to keep it cooler ... Read review
Advantages: Keeps rooms cooler and protects home furnishings Disadvantages: Makes room a little darker and looks different from outside
...My house gets the morning sun at the back and the afternoon and evening sun at the front and it was the front facing rooms that were the worst problem. I wanted to stop the heat building up in my bedroom during the day as it makes it hard to sleep when the room is very hot in the Summer.
On the Continent they seem to get over this problem by having external blinds which allow air to circulate through the slats but keep the property ... ...but we don't seem to have much on offer and what is available is expensive and, because my windows open outwards, isn't really suitable for my situation. Modern Commercial buildings use Brise Soleil but that isn't really an option for my residential location and little canopy blinds are really too 'twee' and not an option I wanted to pursue!
However working in the building industry I was aware of another solution - window film. There ... more
My little house, having been built less than four years ago, is very well insulated and stays warm in Winter. The only trouble is that it gets far too hot in Summer and, because of the insulation, once it gets hot it stays hot!
I just had to find a solution - something to keep it cooler in the Summer that wasn't too expensive or too environmentally unfriendly. I looked at air conditioning but that was expensive both in initial outlay and in running costs. I looked at thermal blinds and they are OK but they still allow a build up a heat behind the blind due to 'solar gain' so the rooms still get very hot.
My house gets the morning sun at the back and the afternoon and evening sun at the front and it was the front facing rooms that were the worst problem. I wanted to stop the heat building up in my bedroom during the day as it makes it hard to sleep when the room is very hot in the Summer.
On the Continent they seem to get over this problem by having external blinds which allow air to circulate through the slats but keep the property cool - I looked for a similar solution over here but we don't seem to have much on offer and what is available is expensive and, because my windows open outwards, isn't really suitable for my situation. Modern Commercial buildings use Brise Soleil but that isn't really an option for my residential location and little canopy blinds are really too 'twee' and not an option I wanted to pursue!
However working in the building industry I was aware of another solution - window film. There are a wide range of solar window films on the market which can be installed by professional firms which look good and which are long lasting but it tends to be that once you have them fixed you keep them and what I wanted was a Summer time solution which I could remove in the winter.
Finally I found a solution which suited me - DIY window film which you can fit yourself, quickly and easily and which is held in place by 'static hold' so you can fix it for the Summer and remove it once you get to cooler days in the Autumn. It doesn't mark the window but it does limit the heat coming through the glass so that the heat doesn't build up to the same extent within the room and it is relatively inexpensive when compared to other solutions. (At least it was for me in my little house - if you wanted to do a whole conservatory it would be quite pricey!)
I found a supplier at DIY Plastics - diyplas.co.uk but there are doubtless other companies on the market selling similar products. They sell the film in two colours, brown tint and grey tint, and they sell it in rolls either 914mm or 1220mm wide. Rolls cost either £22.95 or £30.60 per metre depending on the width you select and you order the length you require so there should be little wastage. My solar film came within days of ordering it and I was impressed with their service.
You cut the film to size either using scissors (my preferred method) or using a sharp knife. I have little mock georgian panes so I made a paper template and cut the panels to size from that. The film is a durable polythene film which clings easily to damp glass. DIY Plastics do supply a helpful little 'fitting kit' but to be frank I didn't bother with that. Instead of using a spray to damp my window first I just wiped the glass with a wet cloth, place the film on to the window and squeezed out the surplus moisture using an old credit card. It was pretty easy to get a good 'bubble free' finish on my little panes and if you do get a crease you can just peel the film back and smooth it out.
Because my windows are double glazed I fixed the film to the outer surface of the glass. This is very important otherwise if you fix the film to the inner surface of double glazed windows too much heat can build up between the glass and the sealed units can get damaged. I found that the film fixed easily and stayed in place throughout the Summer with no problems whatsoever.
Once the days became cooler I simply peeled off the film and stored it over Winter between newspaper sheets to prevent the panels of film sticking together. As last Summer approached I took the film out from storage and refixed it and it served me well last Summer. Very soon I will be using it again this year.
It does make the room look a little more gloomy, a similar effect to going indoors wearing sunglasses but it doesn't keep out all the light and in the middle of Summer my house is very light anyway. From the outside it is more noticeable, looking rather like a car with smoked glass windows but although it looks different it isn't unsightly. Most importantly it works. It doesn't keep out all of the solar gain but it makes it less oppressive and it does help to prevent soft furnishings fading in the sunlight. It has been an absoluted godsend to me and I can use it year after year.
Would I recommend it? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes I would if your house gets oppressively hot as a result of solar gain. It is easy to fix and easy to remove and it does limit the amount of heat which comes in through the glass. It is visible in use and it will make you house look a little different, to the careful observer, when it is fixed . It has stopped me dreading the long hot days of Summer and made me able to enjoy my little house again! Worth a try if you dread Summer because your house gets too hot.
