With bills this year rising in every area of our lives, finding ways to save money is vital, and one of the best ways you can save cash is by improving the energy efficiency in your home. The average homeowner will be looking to increase their savings by reducing their bills, and this is possible by installing shutters on your property.
How Do Homes Waste Energy?
With winter coming closer, we all want our homes to be warm and cosy during these times of cold temperatures and rough weather. Unfortunately, many homes will lose significant energy through vulnerable areas, we’ve all experienced this through annoying draughts, but this can build into expensive bills. Each home has a thermal envelope that is created by your heating system. As the homeowner, you are essentially paying to maintain this envelope; if it’s ineffective, you may be spending more money than you need.
It is well known that as heat rises, it can escape from many points of your home. These can be as obvious as an exterior door left open or as subtle as inefficient insulation in your loft. One area that gets ignored frequently is the windows in between. Windows are a significant heat loss for many homes during winter as the internal heat will constantly attempt to bleed through the glass, with the amount that escapes being dependent on the quality of your windows.
Are Shutters Energy Efficient?
The short answer is yes. Shutters are a practical addition to any property that can significantly increase energy efficiency. But how do they do this? By reducing the amount of heat loss, you need to compensate for it.
Installing shutters over windows acts as excellent thermal insulators for the attached rooms. This results from the pocket of air they create between the shutter and the window that helps act as a subtle insulator. However, whilst closed shutters magnify this insulating effect, some designs can be aesthetically unpleasing for a domestic environment. This is why many people choose serrated designs such as plantation shutters. Shutters with spaces provide a balance of adequate insulation and a pleasing aesthetic that creates the best of both worlds for your home during winter.
Shutters Compared to Window Coverings
Glasgow Caledonian University produced some exciting results after a study of the U-value on homes. The U-value is used to measure the effectiveness of insulating material on a home, with a lower value being more effective. As expected, double-glazed windows were still a standard for homes with excellent energy efficiency, but they discovered other solutions also. For example, an internal roller blind reduced heat loss by 28%, whereas curtains only reduced it by 14%. However, external shutters stood out as the superior choice for energy efficiency, with a 51% reduction in heat loss. From these results, we see the way shutters can reduce your energy bills by reducing your heat loss, but we also see that by combining several methods, you can give yourself a cosy Christmas.
Additional Home Shutter Benefits
Home shutters are a highly effective investment for improving your home’s energy efficiency but can also provide additional benefits. They can help limit noise pollution, and the sun’s glare as the shutters’ louvres and panels help disrupt them before they reach the window. In addition, shutters can provide additional protection from harsh weather and small flying objects for homes that suffer from storms. The materials Abacus Shutters uses are of the highest quality to ensure that they can handle anything nature throws at them and provide a near-indefinite lifespan to match your home.
Garage Door Shutters
Many homes have an internal door that connects their property to their garage. Unfortunately, this convenient access has the unintended side effect of lowering your home’s energy efficiency, as a significant amount of heat from that connected room will bleed into your uninsulated garage. This can be improved, however, by installing a high-quality shutter on your garage door. These durable shutters are far superior to most conventional choices, such as security doors, as they will significantly limit the airflow and allow you to keep more heat inside.
Investing in roller shutters for your garage has added benefits beyond energy efficiency. Our shutters are highly durable and a significant disincentive for crime against your property. The shutters are also significantly weather resistant against winter weather. Letting rain develop into dampness in your garage is another problem any homeowner wants to avoid, and these high-grade shutters can prevent that.
Abacus Shutters provide a varied range of shutters, such as roller and tube and link, made from the highest grade materials to suit any specifications and aesthetic requirements. We also offer a 24/7 hours emergency service for roller shutter repairs. Contact us if you have questions about how the shutter could improve your home’s energy efficiency.
