by Margaret Mair

Created on: March 28, 2008   Last Updated: April 23, 2008

If you are looking for a way to dress up your house, lower your cooling and heating bills and protect your furniture, carpets, pictures and even yourself, it's time to take a look at window tints or films. Available in a wide variety of colors, with a metallic or non-metallic look, and in a range of intensities from very dark to very light, they can increase comfort and create a unique look for your home as bold or as subtle as you choose. And if you choose a dark tint they can even provide some privacy - but only when the light outside is brighter than the light inside your home. Once night falls you will still need curtains or blinds to preserve your privacy.

Be aware that there are different types of window tinting films designed for different purposes. Decorative tints, colored, frosted, patterned or with pictures, dress up your home when applied to the insides of your windows but are not designed to provide other benefits. To find a film which allows you to reduce your heating and/or cooling costs and protect your home and its contents from the sun's damaging rays you need to look at other types.

Heat rejection films are designed to reflect the sun's rays away from the interior of your home. Applied to the outside of your windows, they help keep your house cooler and can lower the cost of running an air conditioner by up to 10%. Depending on the color, the type and the relative darkness of the tint you choose, window tints can reduce the amount of UV light entering your home by 99%, keep out up to 79% of solar heat, and reduce uncomfortable glare from the sun. The reduced UV in the light coming in helps preserve your home's contents, reducing the fading of furniture, floor coverings and window coverings and protecting other precious possessions from sun damage. And the reduced UV also helps protect your family's skin. You can choose to put these tints on all the windows in your home, but they are most effective when used on those which face the sun.

Low-E or low-emissivity films help keep heat out in summer or inside in winter. They are best applied on the outside of your windows if you live in a hot, sunny climate, on the inside if you live in a cold one. They will reflect up to 78% of solar heat back into the atmosphere and will reduce heat loss through the glass of your home's windows by up to 35%. Most low-E films use metal bonded to polyester film to create their resistance to the movement of heat through glass panes, but some do not - and while those

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