As the seasons change and the weather begins to turn cold, chances are that you are going to want to turn the heat up inside your house. Unfortunately, keeping an entire house at a comfortable temperature is definitely not an inexpensive task. Because of this, you are going to want to find ways to keep your house, or at least the rooms you spend the most time in, at a comfortable temperature using methods that aren’t your central heating system.
Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to do this. Aside from adding a space heater to every room, there are several energy-efficient methods of increasing the temperature of a single room or two. One of the best methods that you can choose is going to be using a good set of curtains. You might be surprised to realize just how much heat curtains can keep in.
Can Curtains Keep Heat in a Room?
The short answer is yes, just about all curtains will keep heat in a room to some extent. Because of the way that curtains work, they create a barrier between your room and the window that traps the heat. It traps heat between the window and the curtain, as well as between the curtain and the rest of the room. Of course, the efficacy of this barrier depends entirely on the curtain’s material. The heavier, thicker, and more insulating the fabric is, the better job it is going to do at creating a secure air barrier.
Some materials, such as sheer fabrics, are going to be downright terrible at creating a stable barrier and will only change the temperature of your room by a single degree, if that. Other materials, such as the materials used in thermal curtains, can easily change the temperature of your room by several degrees. If you want to keep as much heat in as possible, you will want to look for the most insulating curtains that there are.
Finding the Best Curtains to Get the Job Done
There are two types of curtains that you are going to want to look for if you want to keep as much heat in as possible. You are going to want to keep your eyes on blackout curtains and thermal curtains. As the name might suggest, thermal curtains are going to be the better curtain for this purpose, but if blackout curtains are the only alternative that you can obtain, then they will get the job done just fine.
Choosing Blackout Curtains
Blackout curtains, to block out as much sunlight as possible, are often made from a very thick, heavy fabric. While it is not going to be as insulating as some types of thermal curtains, it is going to be much better than most traditional curtains at keeping your room warmer than it would otherwise be. Blackout curtains tend to fall on the more expensive end of things, especially for the high-quality ones, as they also have reflective linings that are meant to keep the light out of your room.
However, what this means is that you won’t have any ambient lighting heating up your room either. Depending on where you live and just how much sunlight you get, this ambient lighting might end up heating your room up slightly. By blocking it out with blackout curtains, you might be able to further increase just how much heat gets into your room.
Choosing Thermal Curtains
Unlike blackout curtains, thermal curtains are specifically designed to keep as much heat in a room as possible during the colder months of the year. This means that you are likely going to get better results from them, although because of the materials, they also perform much the same way as blackout curtains. The main difference between blackout curtains and thermal curtains is that instead of a reflective lining to keep the sun out, most thermal curtains have foam lining to keep the heat in.
The purpose of this foam lining can be compared to the way that a winter jacket helps to keep the cold out, while keeping the warmth of your body in with you. It traps any cold air trying to come into your room, while preventing the warmed air in your room from escaping out into the cold. This is part of the barrier that was mentioned earlier.
A good set of thermal curtains is notably less expensive than some sets of blackout curtains, although you are going to need to pay close attention to the material of the curtain. Many people will market blackout and thermal curtains as the same thing, when they are two very different types of curtains. While they share the same thick and heavy fabric, you are going to want to search for curtains with a foam lining. If you can’t find any, you can always add a foam liner to a set of blackout curtains, although this is the most expensive option when it comes to curtains.
How Well Will Curtains Work?
Ultimately, thermal curtains are not going to be a complete replacement for a central, gas, or oil heating system in your house. However, they are going to be incredibly useful at reducing the amount of strain that your heater is going to have to go through to keep your room at a particular temperature. If you want to save as much money as possible by making your house as warm as possible during the winter, one of the best things that you can do for yourself is going to be to install a set of thermal curtains on every window of the room in question.
Thermal curtains can reduce as much as 25% of the heat loss from your windows, as well as block out any drafts and wind chills that come from the hectic weather that winter brings. This will help keep your room at a stable, warmer temperature, no matter if it is night or day. Compared to other curtains, thermal curtains can make a whole world of difference and are one of the best choices that you can make.
