What are the best blinds for Solar Glazing?

If you have a UPVC conservatory with solar glazing and are looking for the best blinds that are most suitable to your roof then we would recommend our unique range of pure™ Pleated Blinds because they are specifically designed for modern UK conservatories with solar glass.

The latest forms of solar glazing reduce heat by absorption and reflection, so the glass gets very hot (touch the roof glazing on a sunny day to see just how hot).

The roof manufacturers normally insist that roof blinds have an individual layout (where you don’t have oversized blinds covering more than one pane of glass) with a 15mm air gap at the edges – we achieve this without actually requiring a light gap. This is because they are conscious of the possibility of heat build-up behind the blind, despite the higher performance glazing and eaves vents that they fit.

If you use thick or aluminium-backed blinds then the highly reflective surface traps the heat behind the blind which cannot escape back through the glass (before K-Glass was introduced in 2002 the heat would simply reflect back out). This is the main issue that roof manufacturers have with certain blinds, as this super-heated air can cause the UPVC rafters and neoprene gasket to overheat.

To give you an idea of just how hot it can get behind the wrong specification blinds: polycarbonate roofs can be scorched to the point where it requires replacement and we have even come across installations where the blinds that we are replacing have become so hot that they cannot be held with bare hands.

Other relevant articles regarding solar glazing include:
Why don’t you recommend aluminium-backed fabrics?
Do I need roof blinds for my conservatory roof?
Do blinds keep my conservatory warmer in winter?
What is your advice regarding fabrics?
Why do I need blinds if the conservatory has solar glazing?
What is the performance of your solar reflective fabrics?
Are performance figures based on real-life conservatories?

For more information browse our Image Gallery by blind type, conservatory shape and structure. There are hundreds of images with explanations of what has been installed and why.