Every day, more and more people take steps to make their homes more eco friendly. There are so many different changes you can make to your home in order to lower your carbon footprint. These can range from using energy saving plugs that turn off appliances that have been left on standby, to installing solar panels and extra insulation. An area you may not closely associate with energy saving is window dressing, more specifically blinds and curtains. You may be surprised to learn that both blinds and curtains can make a difference to your home’s carbon footprint, but which is more eco friendly, curtains or blinds?

Energy blinds

You may not have heard of them, but believe it or not you can get energy saving blinds. Velux, the makers of discount velux blinds, have a range called Energy Blinds that use the insulating qualities of an aluminum coating to keep heat in. This not only improves the room’s temperature, but it can also cut down your carbon footprint and energy bills as you won’t have to pump as much heat into the room. Thanks to this insulating effect, these blinds are eco friendly, particularly if you’ve chosen to place them on quite a few of the windows in your home.

Lined curtains

Another way to help insulate your home is to put up some thick and heavy lined curtains. In cold weather lots of heat can be lost through drafts and through the cold temperature of exposed window glass. By hanging some heavy lined curtains you’re creating a draft excluder that will block cold air from coming in and you’re insulating the cold window glass. Thinner, unlined curtains are a less effective insulator, as the cold air will still travel through the material.

As the material is so thick it also blocks out sunlight in the summer. This can be great for helping to keep a room cool and will further cut down on energy usage as you won’t have to use a fan or air conditioning. The draw back of this is the curtains will be closed so you won’t be able to see the beautiful summer weather.

It’s easier to get curtains second-hand

This isn’t to say that you can’t get blinds second-hand, such as discount velux blinds; however, because of their quite specific measurements, you’ll have a hard search to find some second-hand blinds that fit your window. That said, this is more the case if you’re trying to find blinds for a recess window rather than blinds to go in front of a window. Second-hand curtains; however, can readily be found in most charity shops and because of their more standard sizing it’s quite straightforward to find some to fit your window. As you’re buying them second-hand no extra energy has been used in their production (i.e. rather than having some manufactured for you, you’re getting some that have already been manufactured for and used by someone else). This second hand element makes curtains seem more eco friendly than blinds.