Thermal blinds

itm2

Has anyone had experience of how good these are at retaining heat in a room? We've got quite a large kitchen window, with an adjacent semi-glazed external door, and a freezing cold kitchen, so we ere thinking of thermal blinds for both the window and glazed part of door.

I'm hopeless at DIY so would prefer to get someone in to do the fitting. Any views on Hillarys vs Duette for price and quality of work?

Albermarle

itm2 said:

Has anyone had experience of how good these are at retaining heat in a room? We've got quite a large kitchen window, with an adjacent semi-glazed external door, and a freezing cold kitchen, so we ere thinking of thermal blinds for both the window and glazed part of door.

I'm hopeless at DIY so would prefer to get someone in to do the fitting. Any views on Hillarys vs Duette for price and quality of work?

We have some sloping glass rooflights in a reasonable size kitchen. It only gets afternoon sun, so in the Winter it is hard to keep warm, and gets boiling on a hot Summers Day.
After the 40 degree heatwave of 2022, we had concertina/pleated type blinds fitted to the rooflights, and the sales guy said to really block out the heat we needed blackout blinds. Plus this would help keep heat in during the Winter as they would also act as thermal blinds. He was right in both respects, and we close them regularly in Summer and Winter ( but not all the time).
Also got a blackout roller blind for a window,
We went with Hilary's blinds from a local franchisee/sales guy/fitter.
The blinds seem good quality, and were fitted OK with no issues.
However the local guy was a bit useless otherwise.
Cancelled the first fitting at 09.00 due to some issue with the delivery of the blinds to him.
Rearranged date was not suitable, but despite numerous e mails texts calls to him and the HQ, no response until we got stroppy and a new convenient date arranged.
Blinds were fitted but no poles to open and shut them with. The fitter ordered some from HQ. When they arrived they were the wrong ones. Cue long discussion with customer service - sent some more - wrong ones again.
Third time they sent two sets, one of which were the right ones. Through all this the local guy was impossible to contact. Eventually got some compensation - £25.....

ic

Do you know the window and door are the reason for the room being cold?  Check for draughts, chances are if you pull kickboards off your cabinets you'll find plenty of gaps under units where cold air is getting in (around pipework entering the room, as well as gaps at the edge of the floor).  Also make sure your window and door close tightly against their seals

I have thermal blinds on a set of bifold windows, and they certainly hold back a "pocket" of cold air, putting your hand around them the air is noticeably cooler behind them.  I wouldn't credit them with making the room warmer however. 

I actually have some rooms in an extension with velux windows which are all cold.  I convinced myself the windows were letting the heat out so got some official velux insulated blinds.  They didn't make a blind bit of difference to the temperature (but should help in the heat of summer with shading).  Using a thermal camera I subsequently found some sources of draughts around the floor edges - very subtle, but ultimately constantly cooling the room down.  The fix has been a tube of silicone at £5 to seal up the gaps.

itm2

The purple areas in this image of the kitchen are the windows and door.

twopenny

I've been looking for a blind that will fit tightly around the window edges and been unsuccessful.
Have a look at the fittings for rollers, vertical, venetian. Each has a gap each side where the cold air will funnel through.

A roman blind may work if its top fixed.

Thermal blackout linings work.
If they are fitted to curtains and tuck the curtains onto the window sill at night that's the most effective I've found.
On doors I've made seperate thermal lined 'blinds' to stick velchro close against the glass. Quick to put up, take down at night.

greenbee

I have thermal lined roller blinds at a number of windows, and it makes a significant difference compared to not having anything there. I also have them behind curtains as an extra layer of insulation, and it has reduced heat loss from those rooms. However, I do know that in my case, one door needs refitting as there’s a huge draught (and a leak at the bottom in particularly bad weather!) and the space under the kickboards needs investigating. 

From your thermal imaging, blinds look like the might be an option. You can take them down in summer, or get light filtering ones that use the same fittings and swap them over. I use blinds to go, and we put them up ourselves (any local handyman should be able to do this).

Housman

Interesting and useful comments, here, but how much does a thermal camera cost? Can you hire them? I'm guessing they cost more than the £5 tube of filler, which incidentally would cost less than half that at the local Poundshop

itm2

Housman said:

Interesting and useful comments, here, but how much does a thermal camera cost? Can you hire them? I'm guessing they cost more than the £5 tube of filler, which incidentally would cost less than half that at the local Poundshop

I paid £200 for a camera that plugs into a smartphone. If you have a "Library of Things" near you which has one they can be rented for £15/day

ic

Housman said:

Interesting and useful comments, here, but how much does a thermal camera cost? Can you hire them? I'm guessing they cost more than the £5 tube of filler, which incidentally would cost less than half that at the local Poundshop

I borrowed my Dad's, he got it off Amazon for around £200.  Octopus energy have a scheme where they'll loan them to customers for free (fail to return it and they bill you the cost of the camera).