Window treatments can go a long way toward boosting your home’s energy efficiency, keeping you comfortable. That’s because compared to insulated walls and ceilings, windows easily allow more heat to escape from a room in winter and more heat to enter a room in summer. 

In fact, without energy-efficient window coverings, a home can lose up to 30% of heating and cooling energy through its windows, according to the Department of Energy.

How Window Treatments Improve Energy Efficiency

Window treatments help with a home’s energy efficiency by providing insulation, controlling solar heat gain, and by using natural light to reduce the use of electric light (called daylighting), which saves energy. Here’s a look at each—and how they help create your comfort zone. 

Providing Insulation—Winter/Cool Climates

In winter, or if you live in a cool climate, window treatments help insulate at the window, preventing heat from escaping and keeping a room warmer.

Open your window treatments during the day so that free solar heat from direct sunlight will warm your home.

On cloudy winter days, close your window treatments to add an insulating layer to your house that will keep warm air in.

At night, close your window treatments to add that insulating layer.

Controlling Solar Heat Gain—Summer/Warm Climates

During the day, close your window treatments to prevent the sun’s harsh rays from heating up a room, keeping it cooler (so your A/C doesn’t have to work as hard).

At night, keep your window treatments closed to keep the cool air in.

Using Daylighting

Natural light illuminating a room can make it more inviting, and may even boost your mood at the same time. You can maximize natural light with window treatments that draw it into a room, reducing the need for electric light, which reduces energy use.

The Attachments Energy Rating Council (AERC) is an independent organization, partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, whose mission is to provide consumers with reliable information about the energy performance of window attachments (blinds, cellular shades, roller and solar shades). 

Hunter Douglas is the first company to receive an AERC certification for interior window coverings. Currently, Duette^® and Applause^® Honeycomb Shades, Vignette^® Modern Roman Shades, Sonnette^® Cellular Roller Shades and select Designer Screen Shades are AERC certified. Visit our AERC page to learn more. 

And on the AERC website, you can search for AERC certified products and compare window attachment ratings in categories such as Cool and Warm Climate Ratings.

Leading Energy-Efficient Window Treatment Styles

When it comes to window treatments, energy efficiency and comfort go hand in hand. And while all Hunter Douglas window treatments help you live more comfortably, the following are the best options when it comes to enhancing energy efficiency.

Cellular Shades

Cellular shades are the most insulating interior shades available anywhere. While you might think your vinyl blinds are helping save energy, field studies have shown that cellular shades outperform traditional vinyl blinds in terms of energy efficiency.

Roller and Solar Shades

Roller and solar shades feature clean, contemporary lines, and help reduce heat gain in a room; solar shades also filter sunlight.

Roman Shades

Roman shades provide the benefits of a cellular shade but with the luxurious look of a Roman shade.

Side Panels and Drapery

Side panels and drapery add another layer of insulation at the window, while helping to prevent light gaps.

Shutters

Interior shutters—whether wood or vinyl—add character to a room, while the natural insulating properties of wood and the air barrier inside vinyl shutters help create a more comfortable space. 

In winter, open shutter louvers so the sun’s rays can help warm up interiors—or close them to keep cold air out. In summer, close louvers to help keep warm air and the sun’s rays out, so a room stays cooler, reducing air conditioning costs.

Learn about the latest on energy efficiency and Hunter Douglas products.