Developing Your Home and Garden

How to Optimise External Blinds So They Lower Your Cooling Costs

External blinds can be more effective at keeping your home cool than internal blinds. When blinds are installed on the outside of your window, that prevents the sun from hitting the glass at all. As a result, less heat gets transferred into your home's interior.

That's just one of the ways external blinds can help you lower your energy costs. If you want to optimise their role as a money saver, here are some ideas to explore.

1. Combine Your External Blinds With Awnings

To block the sun even more effectively, consider putting in awnings over certain windows. To ensure you create the biggest impact, you need to focus on the side of the building that gets the most sun. Then, track the journey the sun's rays take over the building, and orient the awnings so that they block the sun when it's at its peak during the hot summer months.

When you have awnings in place, they absorb the sun's heat. It doesn't even hit the walls of your building at that point. That helps reduce the burden on your cooling system.

2. Opt for Automatic External Blinds

To keep the heat out of your building, your blinds need to be drawn. However, in most cases, you don't want them drawn all the time. At times, you probably want to enjoy the light or see the view.

It takes a lot of time and effort to open and close your blinds repeatedly throughout the day, and many people forget to do it. So that your blinds automatically open or close, you may want to opt for programmable motorised blinds.

That allows you to set up a schedule. For example, you may want the blinds open in the morning so you get the most of the early morning light. Then, you may want them to close as the sun gets higher in the sky and hotter.

If you need to deviate from the schedule, you don't have to run from window to window. You can just grab the remote and let the blinds go down.

3. Add Vents

Some external blinds can be combined with venting systems. This is a step that's best undertaken while the building is being designed and put together. However, in some cases, you may be able to add vents to an existing building.

Basically, the vents also need to be programmable and motorised. Their role is to let in air during the evening when the temps tend to be lower. This also helps lower the cost of cooling your building the following day.

4. Use External Blinds to Make Outdoor Spaces More Usable

If you can spend more time outside, you don't have to worry about running your air conditioner as much. To that end, consider using external blinds in a way that makes outdoor living spaces more comfortable.

For example, you may want to hang up external blinds around a patio so that it's shady and inviting. That can even make it easier to work on a laptop outside.

5. Augment Your External Blinds With Cooling Indoor Strategies

Finally, don't force your external blinds to do everything on their own. Instead, make sure that you give them some extra assistance with some internal cooling strategies. For example, hook up your HVAC system to a programmable thermostat. That way you won't forget to turn off your AC when it's not in use, and that can help lower the cost of your bill.

Also, put in some ceiling fans. They help to circulate the cool air from your HVAC system throughout the rest of your home or office.  

 


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