Window Covering Answers

Summer brings its own challenges. Here in Canada our windows, walls, roofs, doorways are all designed to hold the heat and we suffer in the summer from our winterized homes. Some window films can help this but works against us in the winter when passive solar can help to heat the house. Awnings are one answer to providing shade for the home during the hottest months.  Bamboo blinds are another answer.  In the South Asian continent bamboo blinds are sprayed with water in order to provide a type of air conditioning.

 

Image via Wikipedia This house could be heated entirely with a hairdryer. The windows were triple glazed and on some sides of the building there were insulated shutters. All more than 33 years ago in 1978. Sometimes some advances are before their time. Recently a German physicist named Dr. Wolfgang Feist resurrected and improved on the energy saving ideas of the Saskatchewan Conservation House. The Tyee – Step Inside the Real Home of the Future: Passivhaus Related articles What Is a Passivhaus? (matternetwork.com)      The Rise of the Passive House [The Tyee] (jetsongreen.com) Efficiency could cut world energy use over 70 per cent (newscientist.com) Super-efficient Passive House standard draws fans (news.cnet.com) Passive House Going Up in New York (jetsongreen.com) Image via Wikipedia

The following site has a huge compendium of energy saving tips, gadgets and new ways of looking at old problems. I suspect I will return to this site again and again. There are so many ways of insulating windows and living more comfortably with a smaller energy footprint.  I have not examined the section on window coverings, but I am impressed with the innovative techniques displayed here. http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Conservation/conservation.htm#WindowTreatments

Image via Wikipedia No one likes to - compromise. No one. We want what we want and we want it now! At the window it is all about compromise. Windows and doors occupy a significant metaphorical space in our heads. They are the point at which exterior and interior lives meet.  Sometimes our desire is for shutting things out, other times it is for inviting the world to participate in our lives as we live them, sometimes a window covering will allow both. But that is rare.  Just about as rare as getting two partners to agree on the same window covering. It happens, but only after considerable comment and sometimes one or the other caves...it doesn't seem to matter if it's two men, two women or a man and a woman. Compromise is necessary. 

Image via Wikipedia Two juxtapositions: Most people are aware that venetian blinds, or horizontals have been around for about 100 years but apparently they were once called Persian Blinds for that is where  they were invented over 500 years ago. Roman blinds are even older. Based on the pulley system Roman blinds date from the time of Christ. So why such consistency?  Why are there so few new ways of covering our windows? If we are losing heat or airconditioned coolness through our windows why are there so few innovations in this area?

Window coverings fail from time to time. Repairs can be costly. This company offers an alternative to the landfill or buying new blinds. Sometimes a new part is all that is needed to extend the life of a favourite blind.  http://www.blindsparts.com/servlet/StoreFront?gclid=CMDAg_7C2ZcCFQKNxwod5T