Do Solid Window Shutters Keep A Home Warmer?

Over the summer months during a particularly potent heatwave, one potential suggestion for helping to keep the heat out of a home was to fit solid wooden shutters that could not only create shade but also keep the blazing heat out.

With winter approaching and temperatures plummeting, could these very same shutters also help to keep your home warmer?

The answer is an emphatic yes, regardless of whether your shutters have been fitted to the inside or outside of your windows, as long as they fit across the entire area of your window and are made from solid material such as wood, a natural insulator.

To understand why, it is important to understand why any insulating material works in the first place.

Insulation works to stop heat flow, which can occur through either thermal conduction (where two objects of different temperatures touch each other) or thermal radiation, where the heat (or cold) that radiates from an object affects another object, such as how being near a fire keeps you warm.

Glass is famously very good at conducting heat, which is why it can sometimes feel colder than the ambient temperature, as well as why extreme temperature differences can cause it to shatter. Double glazing fixes this by having a vacuum layer between two sheets of glass which theoretically stops the cold from getting in as much.

Wooden shutters help this process partly by adding yet another layer between the cold air and your room, but also because the wood has many small holes and fibres that trap the cold air and create a barrier against the cold, similar to how a woollen coat keeps you warm precisely because it has holes between the fibres.

As a result, not only is a wooden shutter a beautiful addition to any room and not only has it proven effective at keeping the heat out in summer, it may be a sound investment to keep the heat in as well this winter.