Insulated Window Blinds keeps your house comfy all year long.

Insulated window blinds have been on the scene since the late 1800's. Back then home owners would take five or six layers of fabric with an oil coated one in the middle and stitch them together with a quilt pattern. They would then mount the quilted fabric on a tight fitting frame and fit to the inside of the window casing.

In much the same fashion down here in Florida they used the same idea to keep the misquito out. I have a good friend who is a native Floridian, and he tells of these quilts being entirely black from the number of misquitos that tried to get in.

Anyway, these insulated window shades have been in use for a number of years. The reason for the oil soaked, or coated one in the center, was to keep the moisture from penetrating through.

These early insulated window shades had an R-value of around R-7. That is about 4 times the insulating value of an ordinary double pane window.

The insulated window shades were soon made comercially by some enterprising merchants but never became real popular because of there bulkiness. They were a pain to put up and take down.

Today you have several options for the quilted shade: 1.You can purchase the components and make them yourself
2.You can purchase them already made

For those of you who are adventurous enought to make your own here is where you can get the material you need to make your own insulated window blinds at the Warm Company They have a complete line of batting , fabrics and fusable products needed to make these shades.

Jennifern Thoden has an excelent product on how to make Roman Shades ,and other window shades that you could use with their material to make insulated window blinds.

The second choice is to have them made for you.

1 Window Quilts is the place to go to have them made for you. They have a five layer fabric that does an awesome job of insulating.

These people are fron Northern Vermont, and believe me they know the value of a good insulating material.

For twenty years now they have been producing these insulating window blinds which seal on all four sides for super performance.

Like any good window treatment these window quilts have their drawbacks. They are an all or none product. Meaning to insulate they need to be all the way down and locked in place so you won't be able to see out at all.

The second thing you might want to consider is that they are not the easiest to clean. With their tracking system they are hard to take out and clean. You will need to clean them in place with a vacuum cleaner brush.

While they have their draw backs on the plus side is an r-factor of 4.99 which is fantastic. These good looking insulated window blinds are on the expensive side, but they sure make up for it in lower heating and cooling costs.

Cell shades are becoming one of the most popular forms of insulated window blinds Bali has designed a new vertical alternative called the verticell which give new meaning to "Snug as a bug in a rug".

Hunter Douglas has come out with the Duette Architella which has a unique concept. They take one cell and insert a second cell inside the first creating three dead air spaces. This gives the shade a R-factor of around five, which is the best of any of the major suppliers of insulated blinds.

When it's all said and done "Insulated Blinds" is all about keeping you cozy and warm while saving you money. Each insulated blind installation tends to be unique.

How have you used or created an insulated blind?

Did it save you money?

Did it keep you warm?

Whats you advice?

Click on the links below to see some great ideas and tips for using insulated blinds. They were all written by other visitors to this page.

Honeycomb Blinds 
Perfect for insulating you home are Honeycomb Blinds. They have a large selection of this blinds, with insulating pockets of air, available at this shop ...