Pleated Blinds in a Conservatory
When it comes to a conservatories, they are great till the weather is to hot in the summer or the weather becomes cold in the winter!
Its a lot of money to spend on a space that you want to relax in and use, to find you are sitting in an over or a fridge.
Both cost a lot in electric to either heat or cool down, thermodynamics are no joke on this cost to cool or heat, but there are options to help, and there is a few good low cost option when it comes to lean-too conservatories
Putting Blinds in the eve’s of the supports to block out the sun, or control how much sun comes in is a great start and keeps the the sun out and shade in your conservatory, Blinds help you enjoy your investment.
I have seen people covering their conservatory roofs via netting, although not the best option, it does provides some cover and a quick easy fix with a sort of mystic east feel.
The Pleated Blinds option
There are better options, I always offer Pleated Blinds, I have seen roller blinds used, some customers have installed full roofs in place of the Perspex’s or glass, there are companies that put plastic above and below the glass and box off the windows with insulated panels.
Pleased Blinds are an additional option things need to be perfect for them, Apex roof Conservatories roof blinds cost a lot more due to the angles, having a solid roof might be a better option
Lean to conservatories, Pleated Blinds have the ability to be tensioned, Tension Pleated blinds slide up and down cables allowing you to cover up the roof or fully retract to allow the full light into the room
The added advantaged off Pleated Blinds are with the manufacture ability to do more to the fabric and divert the sun or to insulate the room read below.
The Reflective layer
Some Pleated Blinds come with a silver back to them, this silver back adds a reflective layer that reflect heat and light making your space cooler straight away, I have installed Pleated blinds in conservatories on a hot day, sweating, but then the pleated blinds with the silver back are in place, you can feel the temperature dropping in the shaded covered area.
These reflective lined pleated blinds come in blackout and semi porous material, both are good, depending on the results you need.
The Honey comb Pleated Blind
The Honey Comb Pleated Blind are a double layer fabric shaped in a bee comb style shape, a hexagonal shape, 6 sides.
This is great for adding more protection between your internal temperature and external temperature, I’m going to write another blog on the best blinds to protect you against the outside cold and how blinds help, but for this blog, I’m focusing on conservatories.
The honey comb shape add strong structure and more insulation, this coupled with a blackout or a foil insert on some samples, gives you a GOOD walled protection against outside elements.
Pleated Blinds are a perfect fit for conservatories, especially in lean-to conservatories and wanting protection against the sun without losing the reason you wanted that lovely warm space to socialise or relax in in the summer.
Outcome for Pleated Blinds
Pleated Blinds are great, I like them, I have them in my place (no, I don’t have a conservatory lol) and for Lean-to conservatories they are very inexpensive option, some might have noticed I haven’t talked about Apex roofs, the answer is, yes, this can be done with pleated blinds, but it isn’t cheap, and sometimes not perfect, it fits 99% of all Apex conservatories but there will be “annoying gaps” the shaped angled windows in the Apex roof does cost more, its comes down to if you want to keep the sun coming in over a full solid roof
Pleated blinds additional benefit is that they can be cut to shapes, minimum cut is 100mm (sometimes less if you have a specialist company for this), max (depending on material) is roughly 1500mm.
You need to have a good budget for when considering looking into the conservatory roof blinds cost, a lean-to, that is roughly 3.2m long by 3m width, can cost about £2000+, an apex roof can set you back double this, so you need to consider this against other options,
But remember the benefits above, with blinds (pleated blinds) you can control the light and heat without losing the goal of why you wanted to have your conservatory in the first place.
