Summertime in the Portland area is unlike any other region in the country. With clouds parted and rain subsided, the Pacific Northwest offers incredible outdoor activities, music scenes, cultural events and of course, some of the best food you’ll find anywhere. However, we perhaps pay for these summers with uncomfortably high temperatures. Many home and business owners are forced to make the difficult decision between the comfort of air conditioning and its high cost, or fanning the sweat off of their foreheads with a folded piece of paper to save a little cash. What these folks may not realize is that by having residential or commercial window tints installed on their windows, a large portion of that summer heat could be kept outside where it belongs!

Most Portland homeowners spend a large portion of their monthly energy bills on heating and cooling (around 60%), turning any increases in energy efficiency into huge reductions in cost. Pacific Window Tinting can apply specialized window tints throughout your building that shield out 70% of the summer heat. This benefit extends well into winter as the applied film actually helps retain heat when desired, making your investment in window tints even more valuable. As a bonus, these films will block almost all of the harmful UV rays from the sun, protecting your couches, carpets, drapes, and other furniture from fading. This also means that your window tint will provide you with a reduction in those pesky glares that plague you throughout the day. Also, window tints are just as easy to clean as windows without tints, so you won’t have to worry about any additional maintenance.

Adding window tints to your home or business is not only practical, but it also improves the appearance of your building by adding a personalized touch to the exterior. You have the freedom to choose a residential or commercial tint that is just right for you, ranging from so light that you won’t even know it’s there to as dark as the windows on a celebrity’s limo! Your design options don’t have to end there, however. The sky’s the limit and we are happy to help you with all of your window tinting needs. Here’s a quick overview of how window tinting can work for you.

How Applying a Solar Tint Can Keep Your Home Cool

Any home that experiences exposure to sunlight is subject to the effects of solar radiation. Known traditionally as “the greenhouse effect,” the buildup of heat caused by solar rays entering a space but not being able to leave can result in an intense temperature gain. If turning your home into a functional greenhouse during these summers in the Pacific Northwest wasn’t exactly what you had in mind, read on.

How Rooms Trap Heat from Sunlight

The three main types of rays emitted by the sun are ultraviolet (UV), infrared, and visible light. Large amounts of all three may pass through unprotected windows. When these rays subsequently hit an object in your home, they are absorbed by that object. The object then re-releases them in a modified wavelength, which comes off as heat. However, this modified wavelength cannot penetrate windows as easily as the original. For this reason, heat becomes trapped inside your home.

Traditional Ways of Reducing Heat Gain

While interior curtains and drapes may help mitigate the effect of sunlight on your home, they are actually not all that effective at reducing heat. This is because, by the time solar radiation reaches them, it has already passed through the window, becoming trapped in the home. Recognizing this, many would block sunlight through exterior shutters, like the ones pictured. Yet shutters are generally so opaque that they hardly let any light through. Thankfully, keeping your home in darkness to prevent overheating during summer months is not necessary.

A More Efficient Approach

While air conditioning can be very effective at reducing room temperature, it is not always efficient. HVAC systems themselves require a great deal of energy to operate, and can also be quite expensive in the long run. A more effective solution is window tinting, which will block unwanted solar rays from penetrating your window in the first place, while still letting visible sunlight in.

Panorama solar films can reject up to 77% of the sun’s heating energy. By controlling solar heat gain within the home, window films help balance building temperatures and also eliminate any hot spots for building occupants.

Benefits for Family Members

Taking extra measures to reduce heat can be particularly beneficial for both young and elderly residents.

Many senior citizens, particularly those with a decreased ability to shed excess heat through sweating, are at a higher risk of exhaustion from increased temperatures.

Also vulnerable to the effects of heat waves and overheated rooms are infants, young children and people with chronic health problems or disabilities.

How Window Tinting Works

Window tinting works by intercepting the thermal rays of sunlight that increase temperature–the ultraviolet and infrared rays. By blocking heat-creating wavelengths while still allowing natural light to pass through, solar window tint can act as a filter to prevent interior overheating, all without blocking illumination.

Window tints come in varying shades, and their heat rejection properties vary by tint type, shade, and quality. Since different tint providers offer a range of distinct solar tints, asking about each film’s specific heat rejection percentage can be helpful.

Variety of Heat-Reduction Tints Available

Features of the Panorama Hilite® series:

Is virtually undetectable.
Rejects solar heat, also lowering cooling costs.
Blocks 99% of UV rays.

Features of the Panorama Sterling® series:

Comes in wide range of strengths, from 20 to 70.
Is spectrally selective.
Allows for excellent solar energy rejection, while still allowing for plenty of visible light transmission.
Has a subtle reflective finish from the outside.

Features of the Panorama Slate® series:

Comes in a wide range of translucency, from 10 to 50.
Demonstrates incredible solar rejection performance.
Has a neutral finish.
Increases privacy from outside world by day.
Allows for clear view from inside, day or night.

Service Providers in Portland, OR

Pacific Window Tinting draws on over 15 years of experience serving Oregon and Washington with premium window enhancement services. For effective heat reduction in your home, call us at 503.736.9000 today!