Energy saving tips to make your home more energy efficient

Let's start with some cold, hard facts. Studies by institutions like Salford University (1), English Heritage (2), Historic Environment Scotland (3) and Fraunhofer (4) report have shown that windows are a significant contributor to heat loss in residential buildings. Inefficient windows can be responsible for up to 18% of a home's heat loss. Understanding these statistics is the first step towards realising the importance u value of improving your windows' thermal performance.

Understanding how windows lose heat is the first step in being able to tackle the problem. To combat heat lost at windows effectively, you can invest in energy-efficient windows, improve insulation around window frames, and consider the use of window dressings like thermal blinds or thermal shutters. These measures will not only enhance your everyday comfort but also lead to energy savings and a reduced carbon footprint. By minimising heat loss at windows, you can create a cosier, more energy-efficient home.

Radiant heat loss is another significant contributor to heat loss at windows. This process occurs when heat energy is emitted in the form of electromagnetic waves, primarily in the infrared spectrum. Here's how radiant heat loss happens:

• Indoor Heat Sources
In your home, various heat sources, such as radiators, heaters, or even sunlight, warm up the interior surfaces and objects.
• Emission of Infrared Heat
These warm surfaces then emit heat in the form of infrared radiation towards the colder surfaces, which often includes windows.
• Transparent to Infrared
Most types of window glass are transparent to infrared radiation. Therefore, they allow the radiant heat to pass through them, transferring warmth from inside to outside.

This phenomenon can make rooms near windows feel cooler, even when the air temperature around existing windows is maintained at a comfortable level.

The type of glass in your window frames plays a significant role in heat loss. Single-pane windows offer minimal insulation and are more susceptible to conduction and radiant heat loss. In contrast, double-glazed windows consist of two panes separated by an insulating layer of air or gas. This design reduces heat transfer, making them more energy-efficient and effective at retaining indoor heat.

Shutters have the benefit of working well in every season and autumn is no exception. Depending on the style of shutters you have, there are a variety of different options you can choose and they can reduce heat loss by around 36%. Styles such as Full Height, Tier on Tier and Solid shutters all create that snug feeling when they're closed and often that can be enough. For shutters such as Café shutters where only a portion of the window is covered, you're likely to want additional solutions. You can opt for a range of blind styles, materials and fabrics and choose to lower them fully behind your shutters or simply to meet the top. And don't forget that shutters come in more than just white; our hardwood shutters feature a range of wood stains that are perfect for autumnal looks, such as Ginger Snap, Floral Cherry and the aptly named Autumn's Eve, while our Harlequin colour shutter collection includes green, ochre and grey in warm shades for a more modern look.

With their honeycomb structure that helps stop heat escaping at windows and doors, Duette® blinds are a good choice for the cooler days (and nights) and may just be enough to stop you turning the central heating on or lighting the fire for a few weeks more. Dependant on the way you choose to have them fitted, they can reduce heat loss by up to 55% and you can also benefit from different styles, such as floating, where they can be operated from both top and bottom for precise placement in your window, which is ideal as the sun is much lower in the sky and it changes the angle the light comes in at. You can also choose a twin shade blind, which gives you the option of two different fabrics working together to provide an optimum blind. Pair a sheer with a dim out and you have a blind that can deal with a sunny day equally well as a rainy day, plus the range of colours offers a number of autumnal shades.

Roller blinds are often overlooked as a viable option for warm window dressing and it's a shame, as they actually offer many benefits for this time of year. From a colour perspective you're almost as spoiled for choice as with Roman blinds with a veritable rainbow of colours available. And that versatility doesn't stop with just colours. While Roller blinds do tend to be predominantly made from polyester, that doesn't mean they only come in one fabric look, far from it. At one end of the scale you have sheer options, more suitable for warmer times, right the way through to blackout fabrics, ideal for the freezing winter nights. Choose a fitting style that sits outside of the window frame and you can layer two Roller blinds over one another for a warmer look and feel too. They're also a good option for patio doors, as they can roll up into a cassette out of the way of the door, leaving you total access to go in and out, ideal for a spot of fall season gardening, in between the rain showers. Their effect on the room's energy efficiency is lower than other dressings, but at 13%, it's still significant.

Balancing the fluctuating light levels of one Autumn day to another is one of the innate peculiarities of Autumn, with its eternally shifting light levels and angles and here's where the slatted vanes of Wooden blinds come to the fore, allowing you precision placement for optimum benefit. And while there may be a more limited colour palette than with other blinds in some ways the stained colours of natural wood are more intrinsically Autumn. You can really draw on that fact for further inspiration in your Autumn, or if you prefer, fall decorations and incorporate natural fabrics and accessories with the same tones - switch flowery potpourri for glossy conkers, summer pastel throws for forest green and really bring the season to life inside.