There has always been the need to keep your home warm during the winter months. While solving the heat problem is essential, the need to do it while managing to keep spending to a certain minimum has continued to be key. It is also important to make sure that whatever method you come up with does not become a problem during the hot summer months. As such, people have tried a few things to try and improve the heating problem in their homes. Some of these include insulating the walls, installing thicker paned windows and using thicker curtains. The insulated walls have however proved to be a problem when summer comes along, making the house nearly inhabitable during the day. Most of the other methods have proven to either be ineffective or a tad too expensive.
This is where roller shutters come into play. They are a multipurpose addition to your windows. They add certain levels of security to your home, help in noise prevention, give you a definite level of privacy, but also help in keeping the warmth in. They are the perfect mix of efficiency and cost effectiveness, making sure you reap the benefits of a warmer house, without paying an arm and a leg for it. Here are a few ways that roller shutters help keep your house warmer:
Increases insulation
A lot of the heat in your house is lost through improper insulation especially around your windows. Roller shutters are made with aluminium slats that interlock, reducing the chances of heat being lost through spaces in between. Some have polyurethane foam that is injected on to each individual slat, further improving their insulation capabilities. The roller shutters not only keep the heat in your home in, but also work by keeping the cold out. In fact, with such measures in place, you no longer need to change the density of your window panes; whether for insulation or protection, since the roller shutters take care of both. Research has found that with proper insulation, the heat loss in your home can be reduced by as much as 25 to 35 percent. Installing roller shutters is an affordable way to achieve insulation.
Reduces condensation
People underestimate just how much heat is lost through condensation. Condensation happens when the warm air from your home, either through heating or from normal household activity, meets with the cold surface of our windows. The warm air is then cooled drastically, which results in a quantifiable loss of heat. This means that a lot of moving parts will then have to work harder to compensate for the heat loss. Your house heater then requires to be set at a higher speed, and this ends up costing you more on heating alone, regardless of whether you are using gas or wood.
With roller shutters, heat loss through condensation is greatly reduced. This is because the shutters keep the cold from reaching the surface of the window pane, which in turn keeps it warm. The warm air flowing around your house is then kept warm. This means that all your household heating does not lose heat and distribution remains at optimum all through the winter months.
Helps in stabilizing the temperature
Research has shown that as much as 20% of the heat loss in your home can directly be attributed to your windows. This can either be due to conducting heat outside, or through condensation. It can also be due draught from cracks and spaces in the windows as well. Normal window shielding does not protect you from this heat loss and does very little to help in keeping the temperature in your home constant.
With roller shutters, the slats interlock, creating an environment that keeps the heat from escaping. In fact, when compared to heavy curtains and other window shielding which saves you about 15% of your heat loss, shutters are able to top that by as much as 50%. This is however dependent on certain factors such as the quality of work done during installation. Considering that the average Australian household spends about 38% of its energy budget on heating and cooling, properly installed roller shutters are therefore an essential addition to your home.
Protection from the elements
Most of the other window protectors have time and time again proven to be ineffective against weather elements that bring with them cold into your home. These include cold winds and heavy rains. Curtains for instance, can do nothing against heavy rain, which in itself lowers the temperature around your windows, leading to heat loss. Cold North-Westerly winds for instance have the effect of keeping your temperatures at an average of below 11 degrees Celsius. With insulated roller shutters, as much as 90% of the heat loss effect on your windows is mitigated. This also applies to the effect of draughts through cracks and spaces.
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