Between record breaking snow and frigid temperatures, this winter has certainly left its mark, and not just on your house – on your wallet too! Between roof rakes, snow blowers, heating costs, it is a constant battle to keep your house warm and dry while not driving up the bill too high.IMG_3402

During this time of year, I always see an increase in calls asking me what is the best way to cover your windows in order to help provide more insulation to your home. The answer is Hunter Douglas Duette® Architella® honeycomb shades, the most energy efficient window covering on the market.

During the winter months, most people see a drastic increase in their energy bills, and windows are the largest source of wasted energy in their home as heat always flows from warmer to colder areas. In the winter, warm air inside your house tries to escape through the windows.  And in the end, you pay for that escaped heat while using extra energy needed to heat your home.  By installing Duette® Architella® shades on your windows, you can decrease the home heat loss up to 30% while reducing your energy bills by 10%.

You can actually see the difference between a window insulated with Duette® Architella® shades and a non-insulated in this heat sensitive photo:

Hunter Douglas Architella reduce heat flowSee the green window? That’s the insulated one. Notice the difference in heat loss (shown as the color red) between the two windows. Now imagine that throughout your entire house. That is a lot of wasted heat and energy.

But how does the insulation work? Well, if you look at the picture of the Duette® Architella® shades below, you can see the patented honeycomb within honeycomb construction works to trap the air, leaving less Duette Architella- Up closespace for it to escape out of your house. Specifically, you can see the inner layer of the fabric is designed to create 3 distinct air pockets to trap even more air and increase the insulation.

And of course, Hunter Douglas Duette® Architella® Shades come in various fabrics, pleat sizes and features including the popular top-down/ bottom-up feature shown in the above picture.  The shades can also be easily motorized for your out of reach windows.

So stop throwing your money out the window, instead cover them and save money while being more energy efficient.

And most importantly, stay warm!