EZ Snap shades
Trevor_Lambert
| Posted in General Questions on
I was brainstorming ideas for exterior shading, and came across this product:
https://ezsnapdirect.com/
They claim it blocks (up to) 90% of solar heat. I’m skeptical of this, since it’s a see through mesh.
What’s the consensus on a product like this? Better or worse than interior blinds?
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Replies
Trevor,
I guess the biggest difference between them and most interior or exterior blinds is they are fixed - and at the same time they aren't completely see-through, so you will be lo0king through a mesh all summer.
They also don't look great. You have an unfinished mesh-edge with grommets through it all around the window.
“AS SEEN ON TV” Make me think scam ever time!
Their attached with self adhesive snaps. Just like all the best professional products.
Walta
I am not going to toss out a number, because we were not scientific about it - but putting in the foil lined Bali cellular shades from Home Depot helps our comfort quite a bit. These are the accordion style you just pull down. They had top down and bottom up, but much more money.
We got more for more rooms lately, HD switched to their brand and dropped Bali in store. The HD ones stink, in comparison.
I can’t really say much about their quality or claims as I haven’t had any experience. I can say that I have noticed that my window sills are noticeable cooler where the sun passes through the installed big screens. Anecdotal evidence aside, I think that any shading will work better when installed outside of the building
Trevor,
It sounds like these are simply fabric screens. If they block 50% (or 90%) of the solar heat, that means they are also blocking 50% (or 90%) of the light. That might be what you want, of course.
Whenever I hear a homeowner say, "I installed window shades and my house is so much more livable now!", I think, "Wouldn't it have been nice if the architect or designer had designed smaller or fewer windows..."
"Wouldn't it have been nice if the architect or designer had designed smaller or fewer windows..."
Boy, can I identify! I had fight tooth and nail with mine to get rid of the floor to ceiling windows across the front of the house that would make the house less efficient, the windows more costly (tempered glass, treatments, etc.), and eliminate any furniture from that wall.
Oh, and adding 2' overhangs almost did her in!
I used a similar product that was a white film with tiny holes throughout. It stuck to the exterior or interior glass surface. I worked well externally for a roof window skylight, greatly reducing solar gain, but allowing diffuse light through the tiny holes, and to some extent through the white film (that was mostly but not totally opaque). You don’t tend to look up through skylights. Typically, there’s little to view that direction. And the product stayed put on top of the exterior of the slanted glass surface.
However, for regular windows, you could still view the outdoors, but the view was shades of white, with little color and low brightness. Sort of like a black and white picture that was faded to be almost all shades of white. And the film tended to fall off vertical glass after a while. From the exterior, it looked like a very bright white shade was drawn, reflecting bright white.
The EZ Snap shade product you cite would have blacked out windows as shown in the product web page (or you can buy their white version). It would stay put, not peel off. Since this product is appears to be black and opaque, the view from the interior to the outdoors is likely to look like a TV screen that has the brightness turned way down. So likely you can still see the outdoors, but not as crisp and clear, and colors would not be as sharp (but not “whited out” or tinted if the product is black and opaque, just darkened). They show sample pictures of views from the interior on this product page:
https://ezsnapdirect.com/photo-gallery/exterior-window-shade-colors-gallery/
From the interior, the view through the black product looks a lot better than the white product (which suppresses color too much). From the exterior, they don’t seem to show a picture with the white version, only the black product.
I think I’ve seen this or a similar black product used on a house. It makes the windows stand out as dark. For the house I saw, it looks good, somewhat dramatic, but perhaps because of the yellow and white color scheme of an upscale home. IMHO it looked better than the example on the web page. You can think about how a dark black (or bright white) works with your own home color scheme.
In Texas I’ve seen homes use regular window screens except the screen material is much denser than that used up north. It blocks more light to reduce solar heat gain. You could find that screen material, pull the gaskets out of your window screen frame, and replace the screening material with something that blocks a lot more light (but it would be less dense than the EZ Snap shades). It would also avoid the EZ Snap shade installation method and appearance, which Malcolm noted is not as good as typical screens built for windows. And would be cheaper. Its not hard to do if you find a tool with a wheel that is used to re-insert the gasket in the slot in screen frame.
I think I'm going to buy some of these and see how well they work. In the grand scheme of things, they are very cheap.
My question now is, how do I measure the effectiveness? Is there any meaningful way? I could put a blackbody behind the window and measure the temperature on it with and without the screen. What's that going to tell me? Something, but I'm not exactly sure what.
External solar screening does work to reduce the solar heat gain. They block the full spectrum of light, so you get a reduction in desireable visible light transmission as well as the UV & IR ends of the spectrum. They also reduce the resolution of your view, somewhat like looking at a 640x480 picture.
I have an existing solar gain / glare problem with no overhangs and large south/SW clear glass windows.. 90% solar screening / shades were inexpensive and easy to DIY install and have been very effective in reducing the heat gain and glare. The tradeoff is that they darken the room and "fuzz" the view.
There are lots of ways to get there. solar screening in window screen frames or screentight channels, phifer is one brand. Blinds.com, coolaroo, bali all sell various solar roller shades.
Roller shades are problematic for me because we have out-swinging windows. They would almost have to be motorized. I have no electrical provision for that as of now, and even if I did the cost is kind of astronomical. What would probably be ideal is a roller blind attached to the exterior of the window frame. Operating it wouldn't be incredibly ergonomic, though I think it could be done. I can't imagine how I could attach it, however.