Dynamic shading is for life, not just for Christmas…
However, that’s not to say that the power of automated blinds is lost during the festive season. Security, energy savings and interior aesthetics are all benefits that become more obvious in the darker months.
Here’s our 5 tips for perfect shading this festive season.
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1. The lights are on when nobody’s home 🏡💡
Did you know that burglaries increase by more than A THIRD during Christmas? Shocking, but not entirely surprising. With our homes freshly packed with high-demand valuables, combined with a roster full of festive events away from the home, the weeks leading up to Christmas are open season for opportunist criminals.
Protecting your home from thieves doesn’t start with padlocks and keys; it starts with deterring crime to begin with.
Presence simulation is a powerful and simple way to signal that someone is home even when they’re not. Automating your lights, audio and blinds to activate when you’re not there is the first and arguably strongest defence you have against being burglarised.
Umbra are experts in combining lighting and blind control to give you full power over both artificial and natural daylight. This automation can be triggered on an almost endless number of parameters, from daylight sensors, time of day, motion detection and more. You can even operate your smart blinds and lighting to activate through a mobile app reactively for those unplanned absences.
Presence simulation is a proven way to prevent would-be criminals, and there’s no better time of the year to use that defence than during the most active time for theft.
No matter how precise your conditions are, which smart home system you’re using or which devices you wish to activate with your blinds, we can make it happen to keep your home safe even when you’re away.
2. Do not disturb 🚫
Security and privacy go hand in hand.
As the nights draw in, an illuminated home can often stand out like a lighthouse for miles around. The need for privacy is ingrained in our psychology, and not having it can often make us feel anxious, especially at night. With our active hours becoming darker in the winter season our need for privacy becomes greater.
Of course, your level of privacy depends on several factors, including fabric type, openness factor and whether the blinds are automated or not.
Umbra has an extensive range of fabrics ranging from 10% screen fabrics and sheers – perfect for daytime privacy – to blackout solutions for total light exclusion inside and out.
Automate your blinds to react to changing light conditions with a LUX sensor to ensure that as soon as it’s dark outside, your blinds are in place and prying eyes are excluded from your home.
3. Blackholes No More ⚫️
When most people specify a rooflight in their home, they usually imagine a gloriously sunny day with floods of beautiful natural daylight pouring in, making their home glow with life and light.
Unfortunately, what most don’t consider is what happens to this massive aperture when the sun goes down: it turns into an oppressive light sink.
Everyone loves a cosy night in, but it’s so much harder to settle down in your living room if there’s a blackhole in the ceiling absorbing all the warm light. Rooflights are also an easy way for heat to escape a room, especially as heat rises. Add to this the detrimental effect they have on the acoustics of the room, and it’s easy to see how rooflights at nighttime can make a room anything but cosy.
But it’s not just about the effects inside the space: the external effect of this wide-open light sink can cause havoc to local nocturnal wildlife, including protected species such as bats. More and more councils require strict light-pollution measures in planning permission applications to protect such wildlife.
Our KuroLok RL and KuroLok Twin RL give you the option to enjoy that stunning, natural daylight when the sun is up and then opt for a cosy, insulated space at night.
Just like our flagship blackout solution, KuroLok RL features zipped-edge fabric inserted in sleek aluminium side channels for a strong, seamless bond between the fabric and frame. Plus, our custom powder coating service allows you to match the hardware to any standard RAL colour; combine this with our expansive range of neutral tone fabrics and you have a rooflight blind system that matches the surrounding ceiling perfectly. You can even discreetly install KuroLok RL with Blindspace for the neatest, most seamless finish possible. It’s like having a car sunroof for your living room.
4. Keep the heat in 🌡️
As we said in our previous tip, windows don’t just let light in, they also let heat out.
An independent study by the University of Salford found that blinds can reduce heat loss through windows by up to 33%*
With energy bills rising on average by the same number over the past year, blinds can help you directly offset the increase in energy costs and make for a more energy efficient home.
We all understand the importance of cavity and loft insulation; so why are your windows any different? It makes sense to insulate them!
Our flagship KuroLok blackout blind, much like its rooflight option mentioned above, is made with zipped-edge fabric and slim side channels for a seamless gap between frame and fabric. This has the added benefit of retaining heat whenever they’re deployed.
You can even automate your KuroLok blackout blinds to drop whenever the temperature does, combined with other conditions such as time of day and internal light status. Smart solutions like this help keep on top of heat management, helping maintain a consistent temperature without wasting energy and with minimal reactive human input.
5. Free heat and light! (without the glare). ☀️
We associate the summer with blazing hot sunshine and soaring temperatures and the winter with snow and freezing thermometers. But for our homes, the hot summer weather tends to result in buildings overheating very quickly. In contrast, the low winter sun – combined with a colder climate – can offer our homes a far gentler yet highly effective source of heat and light. This is known as ‘passive heating’.
Heating and lighting energy for our homes are not the only benefits to consider here either. Studies suggest that 1 in 3 people in the UK suffer with symptoms of SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder. During these winter months, access to natural daylight and heat whenever it is present is essential to our well-being as humans, affecting everything from our circadian rhythm to our overall mood.
To manage the many benefits of the winter sun without the drawbacks is a job for our screen fabrics. Screen fabrics are like sunglasses for your windows; filtering light and heat, reducing glare whilst also allowing for optimal outward views.
An automated shading system equipped with a screen fabric (such as our Spectrum 5010 5% as seen below) allows light into your home whilst managing incoming heat. Opt for a metal-backed screen fabric (such as Orla) for optimal heat management and glare control. With automation, your blinds can react to optimal heat and light levels and allow passive heating to keep your home warm even when you’re not there. Imagine getting home to a warm house during the winter without sprinting straight to the thermostat!
Bonus tip: it’s all about automation! 🤖
With all the tips above, it’s safe to say there are plenty of ways that dynamic shading can help keep your home safe, cosy, warm and protected in the winter months.
But without automation, none of the above can happen.
Automation allows for presence simulation for security, even when you’re away. It keeps a close eye on lighting and temperature conditions, reacting far quicker than humans can. It can do this while you’re at work, so your home is just right when you get in.
Blinds are only effective when they’re in the right place at exactly the right time; automation is the driver that unlocks the full power of your blinds, whether they’re in the windows or on the ceiling.
Umbra are smart blind experts. We design shading and control solutions that do exactly what you need, when you need it. Our blinds are hand-made in our Swansea HQ and we work with a range of major motor manufacturers, integrating them into all home control systems, whether you’re opting for a wired or wireless solution.
Don’t just settle for motorisation; unlock the power of your smart home and speak to the experts at [email protected]