Windows & Doors Review Sun-Blocking Shades, Screens, and Awnings Boost Energy Efficiency and Comfort, Reduce Glare

With gray skies nine months of the year, the Pacific Northwest isn't the first place you'd expect to see hot demand for sun-control products. Still, Seattle green builder/remodeler Jon Alexander worked with a local window treatment company to install more than $6,000 worth of energy-efficient exterior shades in the high-end home of a client who had beautiful views of Puget Sound and Mount Olympus but "too much sun in the afternoon, so it overheated the living room and dining room and breakfast room."

The product, the woven fiberglass SunScreen made by Phifer, is designed to block up to 70 percent of the sun's heat and glare, the manufacturer says, while letting gentle breezes pass through. Plus, it doesn't block the view.

"It's not an inexpensive thing," notes Alexander. "There are bamboo shades that cost almost nothing." But he adds: They don't look as cool and they're not as automatic, "and they're a problem when people have a view to the west. We have a lot of views that way."

Once reserved for commercial buildings whose owners wanted to save on electric bills by inviting more daylight into offices, sun-blocking interior and exterior screens and shades—which block UV rays without darkening the room—are finding their way into high-end condo towers and custom homes.

Sun Block
Unlike films or glass coatings, exterior screens stop the sun's heat and glare before it hits the window, much like the leafy branches of a shade tree. Slightly less effective but perhaps more popular are interior solar shades and blinds, made from PVC-coated fiberglass or polyester, and designed to control the sun and light without blocking the view.

Manufacturers of sun-blocking shades and screens claim they block up to 95 percent of the sun's heat and radiation, so it never makes it into the home to force the air conditioning to work harder.

The residential market is the fastest-growing segment of Lutron's shade business, says David Weinstein, vice president of global window systems, who estimates the manufacturer's home shade sales have grown 50 percent a year since 2003.

At Smith+Noble, the residential market for the manufacturer's solar shade has climbed by around 20 percent over five years, says JoEllen Ropele, the firm's buyer for hard products, who notes the product is most popular in extra-hot states like New Mexico and Arizona, and, because it reduces glare, with buyers of homes equipped with media rooms.

The demand for energy-efficient shades may be limited in northern areas, though, where milder climates don't call for them. Window treatments there typically are the domain of interior designers.

Motorized versions are making solar control even easier on the homeowner. Lutron's Sivoia QED, for example, offers five methods of operation: remote control; a pre-set timer; via a home automation system; a daylight sensor; or in conjunction with a home lighting control system. The result: less glare and more protection for furniture, carpets, and artwork from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. Plus, the shades reduce thermal heat gain, which can lower electric bills, although Lutron doesn't estimate by how much.

Still, most homeowners who buy the sun-blocking shades, which cost an average of $1,200 per window (installed) want them more for glare control than energy savings, says Weinstein. "People aren't flocking to buy this because it saves them energy," he says. "They're buying it for convenience and comfort and all the other benefits that come with it."

Some do want the energy savings, notes Ropele. "People just want to feel good about their purchase," she says. "If they're spending a lot of money, they want to know they're getting something in return, something positive for them and for the environment. They want to know there's a value behind what they're buying."

Energy-efficient window coverings, concurs Henry Arias, president of Allcraft Building Co. in Lighthouse Point, Fla., are easy on a homeowner's conscience. "On a human level it's a monetary gain," he says. "On the more global level you help the environment by using less energy."