Energy Efficient Blinds…My Favorite Choice
June 20, 2010 by Robert
Filed under Cellular Shades, Energy Efficient Treatments, Window Treatment Reviews
Home energy bills have increased dramatically over the past 5 years. Sometimes I feel helpless as I watch these energy companies have their way with consumers and rake in big profits. I don’t like giving my money to them so I do what I can to save energy. Programmable thermostats, energy efficient appliances and windows with a high R value….
….but one of the of the easiest and fastest ways to cut your energy bill is installing energy efficient blinds, and the ones that block out the most hot and cold air are honeycomb shades.
By using a few energy-efficient measures, including installing honeycomb shades, you can reduce your energy bills by 10% to 50%.The bigger the cell the bigger the savings. Larger cells trap more air and act as better barriers. Double and triple cells are also good insulators, but on a bigger window I would stick with a larger single cell because it just looks better. A tighter weave such as room darkening will trap air better than light filtering. 
They are such good insulators that in a cold climate the air is trapped between the shade 
and the window pane. With a little humidity, this cold air will cause an ice build up on your glass. To prevent this open the shades at least once a day to get some air circulation.
I once had a customer call me in to take a look at his shades. He had honeycomb but was getting ice on his glass. I suggested he open the shades more often, but also in his case the shades were inside mounts and installed very close to his glass. There was even less air to circulate being that they were mounted so close to the window so we removed all the shades and re-installed them a little further away from the glass.
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For a 78 wide and 50 high outside mount window. What size of cells would you use. When I already have newer windows with good insulation. Will I have problems using 3/8 ” double cells regarding ice build up or condensation? Shouldn’t I use the same cell size in all the rooms?
Hi Nicole
If you 78″ is from one side of the trim to the other, I would add another 1 to 1 1/2 inch so you have a little overlap on each side. The reason for this is when the shade is down you don’t want any trim peeking out from behind specially if your frame isn’t square and none of them are. 3/8 double cells are fine just make sure you lift the shade a little on real cold days to get some circulation under there. Yes I would use the same size cell in all the rooms..