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How can integral blinds make a home more energy efficient?
Integral blinds’ popularity in the UK has largely been due to their aesthetic appeal, but nowadays the contribution they can make to improving a home’ s energy efficiency and comfort are becoming equally important factors amongst potential buyers. Ian Short, Managing Director of Uni-Blinds ® manufacturer Morley Glass, explains why.
Many parts of the UK are experiencing warmer and sunnier weather conditions more often and that is putting a strain on our built environment, particularly our homes. Both the spring and summer of 2025 have set new records for the amount of sunshine and continuous warmth we’ ve had, and the Met Office says that all five of the warmest years on record in the UK have been since 2000.
What does this mean for the decisions we make about our windows and doors in our homes? Do we need to make our houses more resistant to heat? And does it mean that we no longer need to focus on how well they insulate if the country is becoming warmer with less likelihood of severe cold spells in winter?
Essentially, the answer is that we still need to improve thermal insulation while at the same time making our homes more effective at reflecting external heat.
Why we need to aim for higher thermal performance
In the vast majority of homes, we should most definitely be increasing levels of thermal insulation given that Part L of the Building Regulations does not keep pace with innovations in all areas of building products, particularly windows and doors. This is why today’ s compliance level for thermal performance is still relatively lenient at a U-Value of 1.4 W / m 2 K for existing properties and 1.2 for new build – at a time when many profile manufacturers are offering systems that will comfortably achieve 0.8.
Going beyond the compliance level could involve choosing triple glazing, but it needn’ t be the case. Tangible improvements can be achieved for double glazed units through the inclusion of glass with thermally superior qualities, such as Planitherm One, which as the name suggests can deliver windows and doors with a centre-pane U-value of 1.0 W / m2K.
This is a product we offer as an option for our Uni-Blinds ® integral blind units for homeowners who want to go a step further to improve energy efficiency, and it is becoming an increasingly popular choice. In combination with the specially designed warm edge spacer bar that we use to manufacture all our IGUs containing integral blinds, this adds an increased level of insulation to keep warmth inside the home in winter.
But it is not just the glass and spacer bar that contributes to the insulating properties of integral blinds. The blind itself can also make a significant difference according to research commissioned by the British Blind and Shutter Association( BBSA), of which Morley Glass is a member. The study by the University of Salford’ s Energy House Labs demonstrated that blinds and shutters can reduce heat loss through windows by up to 33 %.
Dealing with overheating in a more energy efficient way
The methods we use to construct the building envelope here in the UK are not the same as in countries where sunny and warm weather are the norm, such as in the Mediterranean region. Here, we create our homes largely to stay warm during the winter and a large part of the autumn and spring, with a focus mainly on retaining heat rather than keeping it out.
This is one of the main reasons why more UK homeowners are regularly experiencing overheating. And it is not just a handful of properties that are affected
52 NOVEMBER 2025 CLEARVIEW-UK. COM