Bringing Your Home and Garden Into the 21st Century

How to Fully Control Light Flow Into Your Home

Given the strong Australian sun, controlling the amount of light that comes into your home is essential not just for being able to see without too much glare, but also for preventing your home from heating up too much. Essentially, gaining full control over light flow means being able to limit your electrical lighting and air conditioning costs. The problem with things like heavy curtains and Roman blinds is that they don't allow you to fine tune the amount of sunlight which can penetrate into your home through the window. They can only be moved horizontally or vertically, respectively. If you want to regulate light more effectively, then go for one of the following options when choosing new blinds.

Louvred Shutters

Internal shutters make for exceptional window treatments. They are attractive and fit in with all sorts of approaches to interior décor, modern styles and old. Conventional shutters are obviously capable of blocking out all of the light that comes into a room from its windows, hence the name. However, louvred ones are much more flexible. Not only can you partially close a louvred shutter from its hinge, but you can adjust the slats in order to alter the light flow. This is great when the sun happens to be low in the sky because the louvres can be arranged together vertically. When the sun is higher, all you have to do is to set the louvres at an angle that is closer to the horizontal to prevent excessive heat whilst still allowing plenty of light in.

Venetian Blinds

Hugely popular, Venetian blinds are much more flexible than things like roller blinds when it comes to controlling light. They can be raised and lowered, just like other blinds, of course. However, Venetian blinds have slats which can be adjusted just like the louvres in a shutter. When you turn the slats of your blind towards the vertical, less light is allowed in and your home becomes more private. When set at a horizontal angle, you can still see out of your window but the amount of light and heat that comes in is limited. You can even buy photo sensitive controllers for them which adjust the angle of your blind's slats automatically.

Self-Adjusting Glazing

A newer technology that is used in many office blocks nowadays, self-adjusting glazing works like a pair of sunglasses that get darker the more sunlight they are exposed to. So-called electrochromatic glazing prevents excessive light from coming into your home by automatically adjusting itself throughout the day. At night, the glass is perfectly clear. Sometimes called smart windows, this technology is more expensive to than conventional methods, like blinds and shutters.