by Ryan Dube

Created on: March 27, 2008   Last Updated: April 23, 2008

Whenever anyone imagines a perfect dream home, the first image that comes to mind are huge and luxurious windows that allow natural sunlight to flow into the home. However, anyone who has lived in such a home has quickly realized that while natural sunlight offers a great deal of benefits there are just as many harmful and unwanted effects that can cause damage to both your health and to your home.

DAMAGE CAUSED BY NATURAL SUNLIGHT

Some of the most significant damage that sunlight can cause is damage that goes undetected until it's too late.

- Sunlight will introduce excess heat into a home during the summertime, turning a 90-degree day into indoor temperatures reaching over 95 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Sunlight can cause glare that interferes significantly with television or computer use.
- UV radiation will destroy carpets, fabric, wood, furniture and curtains by significantly fading the coloring in a very short time.
- UV will also cause sunburn if anyone is seated within the sunlight that is flowing through the window.

Many people end up drawing the blinds across their windows in order to block all of the effects listed above, completely shutting out beautiful natural light.

WINDOW TINTING IN EVERY HOME

When most people think of window tinting, what immediately comes to mind are the decorative window film applied to the interior of many windows. However protective, whole-window tinting is actually applied to the exterior windows to provide maximum protection from the sun's harmful radiation.

Professional window tinting can provide homeowners both the luxury and benefit of allowing natural sunlight to flow into their homes, while avoiding all of the harmful effects of UV radiation. Here's how:

1. Home window tint passively reflects and absorbs up to 70% of incoming solar heat.

This means that window shades can be left wide open in the summertime to allow natural lighting to fill your home and the room temperature won't rise because of it. Many people even choose to use film on just the windows facing the sun to reduce the heating effects of these large windows in the summertime. This will significantly reduce your energy costs to cooling your home. Since the life of most window tint is 15 years, you will enjoy those savings for many years.

2. Home window tint improves privacy.

Window tint offers the additional benefit of blocking visibility through the windows from the outside of the house. This provides complete privacy during the daytime for anyone inside the house.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>