Today we’re going to be talking about solar shades. Solar shades can be used both on the interior of the home and the exterior of the home, but they serve a pretty similar purpose no matter what situation they’re in.
Solar shades will come in a wide variety of different openness factors, or transparencies. You’ll see both terms used fairly interchangeably. The most popular are going to be 1%, 3% and 5%, but you’ll find varying percentages from 1 to around 15.
The number that you’ll see on our solar shades, whether that be 1%, 5% or even 10%, is referring to how much of the UV rays that hit the shade are able to pass through.
So a 10% solar shade is going to block 90% of the UV rays and let 10% through. A 1% solar shade will block 99% of the UV rays and let 1% through. Even with a 1% transparency solar shade, solar shades are not always able to provide privacy in certain situations. They will always be transparent visually to a certain extent.
Typically, when it’s bright inside the home and dark outside the home, it is very easy to see in and vice versa. So during the day when it’s bright outside and maybe a little darker inside the house, you’re able to see out fairly clearly still.
Because solar shades block out UV rays from passing through them, they’re great at reducing heat. We’ll touch on it more in a future video, but solar shades are also great for some extra decoration and protection from the elements outside as well.
Solar shades also come in a variety of lift systems. For interior solar shades, you’ll have Cordless, Continuous Cord Loop, and plenty of Motorized options that work with our new SelectConnect Bridge. Exterior solar shades are mostly limited to Continuous Cord Loop just for weatherproofing.
If you’re ready to start taking a look at some of our solar shades, definitely don’t hesitate to reach out
to our Design Consultant Team. They’d be more than happy to help answer any questions you may have.
That’s it for this week’s episode of Behind the Blinds. My name is Brandon. See you next week!
Behind the Blinds is our series where we dive into the finer details of everything shades and blinds. For more information about solar shades, call or chat with one of our Design Consultants at (888) 257-1840. They’re easy to talk to!
