Why Window Film Is A Great Investment For Your Home

For most people, the purchase of a home is the biggest investment they will make in their lifetime. Within that single large investment, comes a lot of smaller investments in the form of maintenance (hvac systems, plumbing, electricity etc.) and appearance up-keep (house interior/exterior painting, hardwood floors, carpet, hard and soft furnishings, etc.).

Sometimes, one good investment can positively influence a number of smaller investments you've made in your home.

Here are three examples how window film is a GREAT INVESTMENT:

1. WINDOW FILM PRESERVES THE LIFE OF YOUR HVAC SYSTEM:

When the temperature of the interior of your home is off balanced because an area of your house (great room/living room) is receiving more solar heat through the windows than another area, the air conditioning unit will kick on more readily to try to cool down the overheated room.

The application of window film can tone down the heat anywhere from 30-80% depending on the product chosen. Window film can also be installed only in the “hot spot” areas of your home, if needed, to bring your ambient temperature back into balance. This will help your air conditioning unit from over working, thus preserving it longer.

2. WINDOW FILM PROTECTS YOUR HARDWOOD FLOORS AND FURNISHINGS FROM FADING:

Most people discover they have fading damage because their area rug is bleached out and needs replacing. Once they lift the corner of the rug, they are often shocked to find the entire hardwood floor underneath is still the original color when it was installed and the rest of the room has been faded out as well.

Four italian leather chairs bought at the same time. The darker chair on the left was across the room, further away from the windows. The two chairs next to the window wall bleached out.

Hardwood flooring, wooden cabinets, area rugs, leather furniture, priceless artwork, wooden window blinds and sashes, draperies, YOUR SKIN and much more, are all victims of ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT (UV).

UV rays are cascading into your house along with the natural light and are the biggest piece of the pie when it comes to CAUSES OF FADING. They contribute 40% of the damage.

ALL of SOLAR AUTHORITY WINDOW FILM’s products block 99% of the ultraviolet light. Window film is akin to sunscreen for your house.

Window film is a much more affordable, economical option than replacing the number of fading items in your home. 

3. WINDOW FILM UPDATES YOUR EXISTING WINDOWS:

Glass windows today are more solid and energy efficient than ever before. With the introduction of double-pane insulated glass units (IGU), argon gas filled IGUs, LOW-E (low-emissivity) IGUs and triple-pane glass, windows have never been more advanced.

However, not everyone has the latest and greatest of every new product on the market. Most existing modern-built homes have IGU windows, and to switch out to gas-filled or LOW-E units can be very expensive. If your IGU windows are in good shape, instead of having them removed where they will likely get sent to the landfill, consider updating them with window film. Highly engineered window film from a professional installation company, like SOLAR AUTHORITY WINDOW FILM, will increase the solar performance of your existing glass and turn them into an energy efficient unit.

Solar control window film is a much cheaper option. There is no construction-type work involved, and the results are immediate!

Top Four Reasons Your Home Needs Window Film

If you're home has windows, it's very likely you are a good candidate for window film.

There are a number of reasons window film can benefit your home. Let's cover the top 4 reasons why it is needed in most homes.

1. ULTRA-VIOLET (UV) LIGHT PROTECTION: Ultra-violet light is the silent, invisible killer of a home’s hardwood floors, cabinetry, furniture fabrics and any other furnishings. Just like when you go to the beach and apply sunscreen to protect your skin from the sun, your home’s interiors need protection as well.

All of Solar Authority Window Film’s catalog of solar-control films have 99% ultra-violet light protection. The UV rays are actually blocked by the film. This means that you can keep your blinds, shades or curtains open on the beautiful sunny days and not stress about fine furnishings and flooring bleaching out. 

2. HEAT: You love the natural light and you bought your home largely due to the windows in the great room. Or perhaps, when designing your custom home, you had the architect place big picture windows wherever they could fit, so you could soak up the beautiful views?

Having natural light is great, but when the sun starts to stream in and heat up your great room, your very favorite room in the house becomes an area to avoid for hours of the day. A great inconvenience, at the least. 

SOLAR AUTHORITY WINDOW FILM has a wide range of film options that reduce the sun’s heat from penetrating your glass. Depending on type of film chosen, you can block the sun’s energy coming through your glass anywhere from 40% to over 80%, helping to lessen the heat and regain your view. 

3. GLARE: Glare goes hand-in-hand with excessive light from too much sun-exposure.

Glare is the adverse effect of light streaming in and bouncing off reflective surfaces in your home (tv screens, glass in picture frames, varnished hardwood floors, and metallic kitchen appliances etc).

One common complaint comes when trying to watch afternoon TV and the sun is lower in the sky, causing a direct stream of light blinding the view of your favorite program.

Depending on film chosen, glare can be reduced by window film by up to 94%!

4. PRIVACY: Do you live in a nice neighborhood with sidewalks and casual knocks on the door? Most modern homes today have glass built into the front door as well as a long the sides of the door, called “sidelites.” This allows for better curb appeal and more light, but makes privacy difficult to achieve when someone walks up to the door.  

3M FASARA CIELO FILM applied to door sidelites. 

One option is to purchase a new door with “privacy glass” already in place. Privacy glass has a sandblasted or frosted finish that obscures the view through the glass. A second option is to have the glass replaced in your door and sidelites with privacy glass. Both of these options are expensive and require licensed professionals that will take excessive time (possibly more than one day) and possibly temporarily removing your door.

SOLAR AUTHORITY WINDOW FILM has decorative window film options that mimic the expensive privacy glass styles. This option is a simple and quick solution that provides excellent privacy while still allowing natural light to shine through. Your front door will never look better, being the envy of all your neighbors.

Top Four Reasons Your Office Needs Window Film

Modern office buildings tend to have a lot of windows. Glass adds a contemporary and sleek component to the often drab designs of commercial architecture. The natural light and the ability for workers to view and feel connected to the outdoors improves morale and productivity. 

Alongside these benefits, there are the downfalls of so much glass.

Here's the top 4 reasons how window film can help your office space:

1. HEAT: With ample glass comes ample heat. Heat more easily transfers through glass than  through insulated walls with multiple layers of thermal blockage. Office spaces can quickly heat up, driving the HVAC system to kick on more readily, even during the winter months. This can send the office space or building into a thermal imbalance and stress the HVAC system. 

Atriums and glass domes are impressive structures, but are notorious for their solar gain; heating up office spaces and common areas. 

Highly engineered window film either installed on the interior or exterior side of the glass is the perfect solution to block unwanted heat. Depending on the film chosen, up to 84% of the TOTAL SOLAR ENERGY (heat) coming through the glass can be reduced.

While some of the natural light will be reduced, the view to the outside will be preserved, minus the excessive heat. 

2. GLARE: Glare goes hand-in-hand with excessive light from too much sun-exposure.

Glare is the adverse effect of light streaming in and bouncing off reflective surfaces in your office space (computer screens, interior glass partition walls, metallic cabinets and furnishings).

THE INTERIOR VIEW TO THE OUTSIDE REMAINS UNCHANGED, WITH MUCH LESS HEAT AND GLARE.

It is difficult for office workers to concentrate on tasks at hand when they are fighting glare on their computer screens and worrying about opening/closing shades and blinds.

Depending on type of film chosen, you can reduce your glare by up to 94%!

3. PRIVACY: Whether you have a dentist’s or doctors's office with glass in the exam room,  a corner office facing a busy street, or a windowed office working with confidential information, people enjoy working with a little privacy, and sometimes require it. 

Add DAYTIME privacy to exterior glass with reflective film. This will create a mirror effect on the outside. People on the outside will not be able to see in, but those on the inside will still be able to enjoy the view.

If extra privacy is needed for interior glass partition walls for conference rooms or offices, a decorative film can do the trick. A frosted “band” set in the middle of the glass panel can give privacy while still allowing the lower and upper section to be open. This will not only give more privacy but also update your office with a modern look.

HIGHLY REFLECTIVE FILM GIVES DAYTIME PRIVACY AND "CLEANS UP" THE OFFICE CLUTTER.

4. AESTHETICS: Have you ever passed by an office building with shades or blinds opened or closed in a variety of ways? Or seen people at their desks with office clutter and boxes stacked up against the glass wall? It’s not an aesthetically pleasing, nor professional, look for the building. 

Window film that includes mirror properties (high exterior reflection) will block all the little things that throw the building’s “look” off balance. The building will have a more aesthetically pleasing contemporary appearance.

What Causes Fading and How Window Film Can Help

Whether you are moving into a new home, or have just remodeled your existing home you, want to have everything just the way you dreamed it: new or refinished hardwood floors, fresh paint on the walls, comfy furniture that the kids or the dog haven’t “broken in” yet.

What you may not have thought about, unless it’s the reason for the remodel, is how the sun’s rays will take its toll by way of fading and ultimately wreak havoc on all those shiny, spotless and comfy things you carefully curated.

Your household furnishings will fade, but why? And can it be stopped? 

Let’s look at the causes of fading:

1. ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT RAYS: The single greatest cause of fading is Ultraviolet (UV) Light Rays, contributing to 40% of the overall damage. UV light is an electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than visible light but longer than X-rays. UV is invisible to the naked eye and is an aggressive short-length wave that can bounce off objects and bend around corners.

When it comes to your household furnishings, UV rays can break down the chemical bonds that hold together colors in fabrics and stains. This fades the colors resulting in a bleaching effect.

UV light is always present, wherever natural light is found. It’s not just direct sunlight during the summer months you need to worry about. During the winter months, when the sun is low in the sky, as well as overcast and cloudy days, UV light is still doing it’s damage.

FADING DAMAGE; THE ORIGINAL COLOR IS THE DARKER AREA WHERE AN AREA RUG COVERED THE FLOOR.

2. VISIBLE LIGHT: Just the fact that there is visible light shining on your hardwood floor, or cherished piece of artwork will cause 25% of all fading damage. If you are a natural light lover, you may want to rethink having all your curtains and shades open all the time.

3. HEAT: Another big factor, and another 25% cause of fading is heat. Specifically solar heat (heat from the sun). The heat pouring in through your glass is literally baking your hardwood floor, your wooden window frames, and wooden window blinds into a dried-out crisp.

4. TYPES OF MATERIALS/MISCELLANEOUS: If you have been doing the math thus far, you will have figured out we are up to 90%. The remaining 10% cause of fading in your home depends on the quality of the fabrics, dyes, type of wood in flooring/cabinets and also varnishes and stains, etc. your furnishings are made from. Basically, some things will dry out, bleach out, and fade away more quickly than others.

Concerned? Worried that you just remodeled your home and in 5 years everything will be ruined, again?

Don’t fret, it’s okay. There is a solution to help S….L….O….W down the causes of fading. Window film will significantly REDUCE the factors of fading. All of the films that SOLAR AUTHORITY WINDOW FILM carries have 99% Ultraviolet Light Protection. That means, even with the lightest tinted film we carry, you will reduce your fading from the windows treated with our film by 40%!

In addition, most of our line of films block a significant portion of the visible light (25% the cause of fading) and reduce the heat in wide ranges as well (an additional 25% the cause of fading). Add up all these factors getting reduced and you will have an enormous reduction to your fading over the years. 

The application of window film will buy your home’s furnishings valuable time and preserve the life of your home, and as well as your wallet!