When you’re selecting a window covering in Mountain View, CA, you will want to make sure that they help with cooling your home during the warmer months of the year. The right window covering for each window in your home will be part of your overall energy efficiency strategy during the hottest part of the year.
The summer months can be exceptionally warm. When you put these strategies together to keep your home’s interior temperature nice and cool without having to continually adjust your thermostat, you will be more comfortable, and you will pay less for energy.
One way to ensure that your home stays cool during hot weather is to make sure your home is well insulated. Have weather-stripping applied to exterior doors and to windows so that they will keep hot air outside your home when the weather is hot.
Having your home adequately insulated is another way to boost your home’s cooling during the summer months. There are many materials available to insulate your home, but fiberglass is most commonly used in residential construction.
Check to make sure the walls, floors, and attic of your home have a minimum of 3 ½ inches of fiberglass insulation (R-value of 11). If you want your home to have a higher R-value, you can have thicker fiberglass insulation (up to 12”) installed. The higher your home’s R-value is, the more energy efficient your home will be.
You can also keep your home cooler during warm weather by keeping the use of appliances and electronics to a minimum. Dryers and ovens, for example, produce a large amount of heat.
Since the weather is nice outside, consider drying your clothes by hanging them outside. Plan meals that don’t require cooking or that can be cooked without using your oven.
What is or isn’t on the outside of your home can have a great impact on how cool the inside of your home feels. For example, if you have awnings and exterior window coverings installed all around your home, the shade created will keep the inside of your home much cooler.
Using fans in conjunction with your HVAC system is another way to cool down your home cooler during the summer. Both floor fans and ceiling fans will create a continuous flow of cooler air throughout your home. This will cut down on how often your HVAC system needs to run to keep a comfortable internal temperature in your home.
You may not know that ceiling fans do a great job of adding energy efficiency to your home during both hot and cold weather. When the weather is hot outside, you should run your ceiling fans counterclockwise so that hot air is pulled up and cold air is pushed down.
During the winter, you should reverse your ceiling fans (they have a switch to do this on the base of the fan) so that they run clockwise. This will push hot air down and pull cold air up.
Window coverings that are insulated are another part of an overall strategy to keep your home cooler during the heat of the summer. Insulated window coverings, like cellular (honeycomb) window shades, will help keep cool air inside your home and will prevent hot air outside from coming inside.
Insulated window coverings also give your windows a beautiful new look and feel, and they will enhance the privacy of your home. So not only do you get the advantage of better energy efficiency and reduced power usage, but you also get increased curb appeal and more security for your family.
If you’d like to learn more about choosing window coverings in Mountain View, CA, you can speak with our experienced staff at Windows & Beyond, Inc.