What are the correct blinds for Solar Glazing?

The latest high performance solar glazing from Pilkington and K2 help to reduce heat transmission through the glazed roof of a conservatory.

Whilst the improvement is dramatic compared to standard double-glazing (and even K-Glass) it is still relatively poor compared to a solid roof or cavity walls that you have in a house and so may not meet everyone's expectations.

Many customers wait for up to a year (although normally just a few months) after their conservatory is built to see how it feels during different weather conditions, but most people still find that, whilst it makes a difference, they still need blinds.

Our customers tell us that despite the noticeable advantages they still get a degree of solar gain, but still suffer a great deal of heat loss and glare. Conservatory blinds combat these issues as well as helping to reduce noise reverberation and improve privacy.

Having installed many hundreds of blinds in conservatories with solar glazing we have found that some can absorb the heat energy, which is then radiated or conducted. In other words the heat energy is still there, it just has not been transmitted into the room (the glass can get quite hot to touch).

This has led us to avoid recommending any overly reflective, thick or potentially brittle fabrics for conservatories with high-performance solar roof glazing as this could cause problems later on. It is also for this reason that we no longer recommend roof roller blinds.

If you have high performance solar glazing on your roof then we would only recommend Eos and Pure Pleated Blinds with softer fabric ranges, as well as Pure Pinoleum Blinds and possibly Duette pleated blinds (subject to aspect and shape).