Silver Backed Roller Shades

Silver backed fabrics change the whole game when it comes to fabric color and performance for your roller shade.

Non-silver backed solar screen fabrics have some predictable performance characteristics- if you look at the chart below, you’ll see that typical light colored screens perform well at keeping a room cooler, with a lower shading coefficient overall, but they also fall to the right on the graph with a higher Visible Light Transmission.

Conventional solar screen fabrics in darker colors fall  far to the left, with very low VLT values, meaning that they reduce glare very well, but they also fall in the upper portion of the graph, showing higher shading coefficient values.

So what does this mean in plain English?  Well, darker shades are easier to see through - i.e. better visibility but are hotter because their color absorbs heat which gets transmitted inside your space.  Lighter shades are harder to see through - i.e. less visibility because the light will "glow" when it strikes the lighter fabrics which obscures the view.  However, the lighter color does not absorb heat as much, so less heat is transmitted into your space.

Here is the good news.  By using some sort of space age silver technology, these silver backed marvels allow for dark fabric which preserves view and then magically the heat gain is reduced by the silver on the back - which does not create a glow problem.  Again, if you can understand it, check out the silver fabrics on the chart below.

Or said more technically, "notice that all of the colors of both SilverScreen and EnviroScreen high performance fabrics fall into what we call the “silver sweet spot”… low on the Shading Coefficient axis and low on the Visible Light Transmission axis. Every color! Excellent performance in both areas (all three really, if you consider view-through a separate value). No compromise necessary. This is all due to the ultra-fine, reflective layer of silver backing on the solar fabric, which reflects away heat and light, allowing the interior to stay cool, glare free and maintain a great view and connection to the outdoors."

Of course, we would love to help you choose best silver screen fabric for your roller shade project.  Contact us today for a complimentary consultation and thanks for your interest in Latreia Blinds and Shutters!