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Choosing the Right Solar Roller Shade Fabric
Roller shades offer light control, heat reduction and minimize glare while adding comfort and beauty to your home and office. Let's talk about how to choose the right fabric for your space. Determing your goals and prioritizing the benefits will help you choose.
Things to consider:
- Glare Reduction
- Heat Control
- View to the Outside
- Privacy
Choosing Color
Light Colors
Choose a lighter color roller shade like white or bone when you need optimum heat reduction. Lighter colors reflect light and illuminate the interior space therefore providing more energy savings. Lighter colors provide a more opaque or less clear view to the outside.Darker Colors
Darker colors provide a great view to the outside. They reduce glare making them ideal for viewing computers and televisions. While not as robust in heat reduction as lighter colors, dark colors disperse the light which can minimze hot spots and make a room more comfortable.
Choosing Openness
Openness refers to how tight the weave or mesh is woven in the fabric. The tighter the weave, the less open the fabric is. In other words, the structure of the fabric determines how much heat and light is allowed through. If you are more concerned with the view, choose a higher openness factor like 10% or more. If controlling light and heat are more important, choose a tighter weave like 1% or 3%. The tighter the weave, the more heat and light control the fabric provides.If you want complete light and heat control, choose a blackout fabric. Blackout shades have a backing that will block out 100% of the light and provides excellent heat reduction. Of course, there is no visibility through a blackout shade which provides ultimate privacy.
Keep in mind that shades that have any measure of openness do not prevent people from seeing into your space. There are daytime screen fabrics that will provide a view outside and provide privacy, but do not work at night when there is a light source behind the screen. In simple terms, daytime privacy screens allow viewers to see out of the screen, but prevents visibility through the screen from the outside. SunTex®97 is a daytime screen fabric. “Daytime” privacy is the very important distinction because at night, visibility is reversed due to light source. For example, a concentrated light from a porch or inside a house allows outside viewers to see inside. Thus, the term “daytime privacy screen.” Black and bronze offer the best outward visibility for daytime screens.
