Not Just for Winter: How Shutters Keep Your Home Cool All Summer Long

Days are getting longer, temperatures are rising, and we're finally remembering what it feels like to see the sunshine through the windows. After months of dark mornings and cold evenings, summer is finally on its way. However, there is one thing that most people forget about. All through the winter, your shutters were at work keeping that heat in, keeping you warm during those cold nights, but what happens when the tables are turned and it's not so cold anymore? Summer, of course, brings with it a whole different problem. Instead of keeping the warmth in, now we have to find a way of keeping it out.

The sunshine problem nobody talks about: We love a good sun-filled day here in Britain, mainly because we're not used to them often enough. However, sun-filled days, as lovely as they are, do a lot more than just light up the room. They warm it up, and rooms become very hot, very quickly. Glass is not the best at keeping the warmth out, especially if the sun is streaming in through a southern or western-facing window. While curtains help, and blinds help a bit better, shutters are the ultimate solution.

The magic of the louvre: This is when shutters really start earning their keep in the summer months. The louvres, or the angled sections that you can open or close, provide you with a great amount of control over what enters the room and when.

In the mornings, for example, you might want them open to allow in the early morning light without as much heat. By midday, when the sun is at its strongest, you can adjust them to reflect the light up towards the ceiling rather than straight into the room. This keeps things bright without allowing the worst heat in. As the day cools down and the sun sets, you can adjust them once again to allow for a bit more breeze to get inside.

It sounds simple, and honestly, it is. But the impact it will have on the inside temperature of the room during the summer months is quite noticeable. You're basically controlling the sun instead of letting the sun control you.

The bigger picture: The less you need to cool the inside of the house, the less you need to use fans or air conditioning units. That makes a big difference to both the comfort level of the house and the cost of keeping it cool. A room that's been shaded all day will always be far more pleasant to come home to than one that's been baking in the sun.

Shutters are right at the window, where the heat first enters the house. Dealing with the heat here, rather than further inside the house, just makes more sense.

One investment, every season: The thing about shutters is that they're not just a summer thing, nor are they just a winter thing. They're a year-round thing. The same shutters that keep the warmth in through January give you control over the temperature in July.

So, if you've been thinking of shutters as something you put up in autumn and then forget about until May, it's probably time to think about them again. Summer's just around the corner, and we think you'd be surprised at just how ready shutters are to help you deal with it.