How we can help reduce your energy bills

With winter just around the corner, many of the customers we speak to at this time of the year are thinking of ways to reduce expensive energy bills. Shutters in all styles work to provide an extra level of insulation to your home, with traditional solid shutters being the traditional British barrier against the cold.

But unsurprisingly we, at The Shutter Studio, believe that the flexibility of plantation shutters offers a more balanced result to homeowners looking to provide their homes with protection from the highs and lows of British weather. We want to help as many homeowners as possible provide long-term solutions within their properties, especially when the prices continue to rise and people can’t afford energy bills in the long run.

Are shutters good for insulation?

Plantation shutters are a fantastic solution to keep heat from escaping out through the windows which, along with the roof of a house, is where heat escapes the most. With the energy bill increase, customers would benefit from fully closed plantation shutters to help form a secondary barrier between the room and the window they are fitted to which provides insulation in two ways.

Did you know shutters can actually prevent heat loss by up to 64% through your windows? This would help keep your interior much warmer during the winter seasons, trapping the heat indoors and preventing you from using your heating as often or for as long.

Firstly the air between the shutters and the windows work as insulation in a similar way to double glazing – adding a layer of air and preventing convection currents. Secondly, the shutter creates an extra barrier for the cold to penetrate or the heat to leak from – especially useful during winter nights when you want to stop the heat leaking out of the home. Finally, our plantation shutters can also stop any stray breezes from filtering into the room from cracks around the windows.

Will plantation shutters make the house hot in the summer?

Plantation shutters are designed for the American South, an area know for its hot summers and as such the shutters are designed to keep a house warm in the winter and cool in the summer. If we’re lucky enough to get a hot day you can keep all the louvers open along with the windows to provide a clear path for a cool summer breeze.

If there’s no breeze you can leave your shutters closed to keep out the sun and protect you from the heat or open half the louvers to let in the sunlight and keep the bottom half closed against the heat. Depending on the location and style of your window there will definitely be an ideal shutter design that allows you more control over how your house is heated in both the summer and the winter.

Why choose shutters over curtains as insulation?

If you have a radiator located directly under your window closing your curtains will mean the heat generated by the radiator becomes trapped behind the curtain, preventing it from filtering into the room. With Plantation shutters, this is not an issue and any heat rising from the radiator will hit the shutter and then recirculate back into the room, making your radiators far more efficient.

Another reason people are choosing to install shutters rather than hang curtains is for maintenance reasons. Plantation shutters can be quickly wiped down with a microfibre cloth or duster whenever you notice dust accumulating; much easier than remembering to take down and wash the curtains every three months.

The final and most important reason as to why we advise customers to choose shutters over curtains is that they only reduce heat loss by up to 39% in comparison to that high figure we mentioned earlier of 64% by shutters.

If you’d like to find out more about using plantation shutters as insulation or have any other questions you can contact us through our website or call us directly to find out more.