Bali Blinds » Solar Shades

Conservatory Roof Shading Ideas

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:34:08 +0000

We’ve discussed the necessity of conservatory roof blinds in one of our past articles. We are going to take a deeper look today at a few creative ideas of conservatory roof shading.

First of all, you need to be aware that the conservatory roof needs special treatments, because it’s exposed to the winter chills as well as to the summer heats, much more than ordinary windows in a home. This is why conservatory roof shading solutions should be more than simple, decorative accessories, but also very good thermal insulators, resistant to UV rays and easy to handle from a distance. Their function is to offer you a comfortable space in your conservatory and to protect the carpets and the furniture, which otherwise would fade and get damaged by UV in a very short time. This functionality comes with a high price tag, so adding a conservatory to your house is not the cheapest thing you can do in this world.

Shades with reflective backings: this is maybe the most inexpensive solution for covering your conservatory roof. Basically, window shades made of common fabrics are lined with a reflective coating which won’t be visible from the inside, but which would act as a barrier for the thermal exchange and as a temperature regulator. One of the most efficient backing materials is Aluminized Mylar, which is a thing that was firs used by NASA for reflecting the solar heat. I found an interesting article on how to make your own sunlight reflective linings for window blinds. I don’t know if you can apply it for the conservatory roof shadings, but at least you could save some money on the other windows in your home.

External shade netting: this is a kind of plastic net which is wrapped around the conservatory roof, dimming the light transmission with 50%. Personally, I don’t like it very much, because I like to be able to allow full light to enter at special occasions, but there are people who think this solution is better than interior shades.

Polycool Solar Control Inserts: these are suitable for polycarbonate conservatory roofs and they reduce up to 85% of the solar heat amount and up to 87% of blinding glare, without a significant light loss. These inserts are available in two finishes: silver and gold. I know Polycool is a trademark, but I don’t know the generic term for this kind of shading. However, if you’re interested, you can search the net and see it for yourself what brands are available within your area. I think it’s called window film technology.

Do you know any other unusual conservatory roof shading solutions? I’d be happy if you shared them with all our readers in the comments. Thank you.

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Bali Solar Shades: Your Kitchen Longs For Them

admin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:34:02 +0000

Amongst the window coverings I found to be most suitable for my kitchen, Bali solar shades come in my personal top of preferences. There are few reasons why I think they are so great:
Bali solar shades are not opaque. I don’t need complete blackout in my kitchen. I want to see the food when I cook, without having to turn on the lights during daytime. Yet, I live in a sunny area, so I need UV protection. At Bali, there are two openness choices for the solar shades: 10-14% or 5%-7%.

Bali solar shades are stylish. I’m the modern type of person and that’s visible in my interior design and furnishings. I like to get myself surrounded by beautiful objects and decorations, so the window coverings make no exception. I want to enjoy what I see wherever I might be looking inside my home.

Bali Solar Shades Properties

Shading coefficient: from 0.33 to 0.74. This means high energy efficient, thus lower energy costs

UV ray blockage: from 86% to 95%. This is the amount of harmful UV rays that is blocked by the shades fabric.

Limited lifetime warranty. Solar shades from Bali are tested for long life, therefore you’ll have to replace them less frequently.

Eco-friendly raw materials. Some of the fabrics are GREENGUARD certified. Here’s their list: Benton Ivory, Benton Beige, Benton Pewter, Prospect Alabaster, Prospect Black, Prospect Chestnut, Skylar Beige, Skylar Coffee Bean, Skylar Off White and Skylar Sandbar. The plastic components contain about 50% recycled material and the aluminum tube is 100% recyclable, as well as the hem bar.

So, if you’re concerned about going green, Bali solar shades will fully satisfy this requirement of yours.

Care and Cleaning of Bali Solar Shades

There’s no big deal about the maintenance of Bali solar shades. You can dust them and vacuum them without any restriction. Soil removal and spot cleaning are also allowed. Beware that these shades can’t be immersed in water, as this would ruin them. If you dust them frequently, you won’t have any problem and you’ll manage to preserve them like new for a very long time.

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Conservatory Roof Blinds

admin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:59:31 +0000

Conservatory roof blinds are an absolute necessity. A conservatory offers an excellent recreation space, but when the sun is hot, you may discover it’s impossible to live inside because of the heat that goes through the glass roof directly on your head. This is why conservatory roof blinds are so sought after, and that’s also why window treatments manufacturers have a very diversified offer when it comes to covering conservatory roofs.

In order to be efficient, conservatory roof blinds need to have a thermal insulation superior to common blinds and shades. That’s because the roof is more exposed to direct sun rays, and for all over the day, not only a few hours like in case of regular windows. This thermal protection can be easily achieved by lining the blinds fabric with a solar reflective aluminum backing. There are other helpful accessories that one can install on the roof windows, such as solar inserts, special window films that are transparent but stop the UV radiation from penetrating the window surface. Solar inserts are a relatively new invention and they work great in conjunction with polycarbonate conservatory roofs.

Most Used Types Of Conservatory Roof Blinds

Because conservatory roofs are usually high, cordless automated blinds are preferred for covering these windows. There are many types of blinds that can be adapted for conservatory roofs, from pleated blinds to roller shades or to pinoleum blinds, most of them being fit for any type of conservatory shape, be it Lean To, Victorian, Edwardian or Bespoke.

: Venetian Conservatory Roof Blinds

If you need conservatory roof blinds, you’ll see that there’s a wide offer available, many of the biggest manufacturers offering stunning models made of highly energy-efficient fabrics and motorized with the latest generation tubular motors, which are extremely silent and smooth in operation. Hillarys is one of the companies that have multiple choices to offer, and featuring a great experience in window treatments, they can advise you how to make your conservatory a great space to live in all year round. The photo on the left illustrates a conservatory with Citrus Pleated blinds from Hillary’s. This is only one example of the many solutions you can choose from when it comes to protecting your conservatory from harmful UV rays.

One last tip: retractable awnings may be as efficient as conservatory roof blinds.

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Blinds For Skylights: When Windows Are Too High To Reach

admin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:40:59 +0000

Skylight blinds are an absolute necessity, at least for domestic use. Nothing can equal the beauty of skylight windows, but they have a major drawback if not covered: they could turn your room into a green house, because of the direct sun light that lasts for so many hours a day. In normal windows, thanks to their orientation, there’s full sun only for several hours a day, then as the sun moves in the sky, shadows take its place. With skylights, things are different, as these windows are exposed as long as the sun shines in the sky. Besides, if you are surrounded by taller buildings, you may need some privacy, at least at night.

Even in case of commercial buildings such as museums or art galleries, skylight blinds are also a must have, because there has to be a way to control the light filtering if you want visitors to be able to enjoy the masterpieces exposed in the halls.

Skylight Blinds Control Systems

Depending on the movement control mechanism, there are several types of skylight blinds:
Motorized skylight blinds: these are maybe the most convenient, as you don’t have to use anything else but a button on the remote control to change their position. In buildings with tall ceilings, this could be the only possible solution, because the manual systems may be too big and difficult to operate. Powell Blinds offer several interesting solutions of motorized skylight blinds. If you have skylights and you’re interested in some window covering ideas, you can check out the Velux website. Velux is a well-known skylights manufacturer and they offer a catalog with a wide range of mount types and accessories such as blinds, shades or accessory controls.

Manually operated skylight blinds: if the rooms are not that tall, skylights blinds can be operated with the help of a crank and a simple wand. Usually, the wand is removable, so you can hide it somewhere when you don’t need to use it.

Best Materials For Skylight Blinds

First of all, when thinking of skylight windows, you have to be aware that if they don’t provide an excellent thermal insulation, your energy bills will be much higher, in both winter and summer. This is why most manufacturers of skylights and roof windows suggest the usage of either low-E or low-E laminate glass, double glazed, and if possible filled with an inert gas.

Such windows come from start with a good R-value, but you can improve it even more by choosing special fabrics for your skylight blinds. The fabric or the material for skylights coverings should have good insulating properties, as well as good resistance at fading, yellowing, bending or cracking under the direct exposure to sun light. Cellular blinds and shades are excellent in this respect, so they are one of the most frequent choices. A few examples from the most popular manufacturers are: Bali Skylight Cellular Shades, available as inside or outside mount, Comfortex Skylight, available only as inside mount, Graber Skylight, which are manual and come with extra charge, optional extension poles to open and close the shade, or Hunter Douglas Skylight which come either manual or motorized for full comfort and convenience.

Hopefully, this brief overview will help you in choosing your blinds for skylights.

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Hillarys Conservatory Blinds Guide

admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:20:07 +0000

Not all houses have a conservatory, but if yours does, then you know how important conservatory blinds are in creating the ambiance you desire in your home and in keeping the heat away. Conservatories have those large glass roofs, that need special thermal insulation, if you don’t want to live in a real green house. Of course, the windows quality is also important, as you should choose at least double-glazed, low-E glass ones, but also their coverings can help in creating a human-friendly space inside this room. I don’t know about other manufacturers, but I’ve looked at Hilarys blinds for this type of room and I must confess they’ve become my first choice when it comes to window coverings for the conservatory.

Conservatory Roof Blinds

Hillary’s experts advise that pleated blinds suit best the conservatory roof. Their strongest point is the special blind fabrics with thermal insulating lining, to stop the heat from entering your space. If you want to know more, you could call a Hillary’s representative and ask about the sun protection factor. This factor is a measure of the sunlight protection level offered by the blinds and it takes into account the transmission of heat, the reflectance of the blind surface and the absorption of heat into the blind fabric.

Hilarys Conservatory Blinds: Perfect Playtime

The conservatory roof pleated blinds for Hillary’s come in over 100 colors and shades, from beige, yellow or orange, to blue, green or even purple. Such blinds can either be manually operated, by a simple, long, detachable wand, or again manually operated by via a crank with a winding device, or a kind of semi-motorized operating device, thanks to an electric screwdriver attached to the crank, instead of the manual winding mechanism.

The latest news form Hillary’s blinds is that they offer now remote control option for the roof blinds. This is great, but there’s no additional info on their official website, you’ll have to call and talk to one of their window treatments advisers.

Conservatory Blinds For The Sides

On the sides of your conservatory, you can let your creativity flow and imagine the most fashionable and outstanding solutions, as the sides are less exposed to direct sunlight and heat than the roof.
Many blinds companies offer great models of blinds, so you have practically an infinite choice of models, fabrics, colors and styles. For instance, at Hillary’s blinds, you can choose for your conservatory’s sides either vertical blinds, Venetian blinds, roller shades, Roman blinds or the eco-friendly, gorgeous Woodweave blinds, made of jute, bamboo or poplar wood. These natural fibers are woven together, offering quite a wide choice of styles.

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Looking for Solar Shades? Bali Has Options

admin — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:16:16 +0000

Solar shades are those window treatments that let the light through, while protecting you from the glare. This helps preserving your room decorations like new for a longer time, as they are not anymore exposed directly to sun rays.

Bali solar shades are made of certified fabrics which are presented under the registered trademark GreeGuard. According to the privacy and light control provided, the fabrics for solar shades from Bali come in two options: with 10% – 14% openness and with 5%-7% openness. Both variants feature a wide range on textures and colors, and for some of them you can even order samples, to see better if they match your other decorations inside the room.

As of the lift control types, Bali offers four types of control: the continuous-loop lift system, the cordless lift system, the infrared motorization system and the radio frequency motorization system. They are all designed in such a way as to avoid strangulation hazards for children or pets. The cordless lift system is available in three variants: with clear hem grip, with standard tassels or with wood tassels.

An innovation which I like at Bali blinds is the possibility of choosing the reverse roll: instead of orientating the fabric to roll to the back, you can have it rolling to the front, therefore allowing more distance between the fabric and the window itself, thus accommodating better the window handles.

For very picky customers, Bali offers the possibility to add a cassette valance or a square-corner valance to your roller shades, which gives a touch of elegance. In case you like this idea, make sure to order the valance in the same time with the solar shades, as they can’t be ordered later on.

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