San Diego Shade - Articles

Shades of Spring

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If you haven't lived in Southern California for a while, you might just be thinking "...did we even have a winter?", but if you've been here for some time, you can feel Winter's icy grip relenquishing to the warmth of Spring. Okay, maybe "icy" is an overstatement, but it was cold and wet...at least for a few days. 

Springtime, though, is a time for us to motivate and begin shaking off the doldrums (or pounds) we built up over the last few months and start tackling the things on our never ending "to do" lists.  Getting the yard in order, paying our taxes, and the infamous spring cleaning come to mind.  But spring, as we know, is also the start of the California warming trend that continues pretty much unabated from now through September. 

And with that warmth, comes the air conditioner - and the related SDG&E bills.  By July, in certain parts of San Diego, you may find yourself running your air conditioner 24-7, just trying to maintain a comfortable environment in your home.  And as we know, air conditioning isn't cheap!  You can end up spending hundreds of dollars a month keeping the house cool (not to mention the impact burning all that energy has on our environment). 

But there is a better way to keep cool...window shades.  Shades, especially solar shades, are a great way to reduce the need to run your air conditioner.  They do an excellent job at reducing heat gain in your home, not to mention making it look nice.  A good solar shade can cut down the temperature of a sunny room by 20 to 30 degrees. Instead of coming home to a house that's 90 degrees - if you didn't want to run your air conditioner all day - you can come home to a house that's a comfortable 70 to 75 degrees and not spend a cent on air conditioning.  

That helps your bottom line, keeps the energy loads down on our power plants and even makes the environment just a little bit better.  So, as winter moves into spring and spring into summer, think about adding new or replacing old window treatments with some energy efficient solar shades and improve your home's energy efficiency tremendously (and it's a great way to avoid "springing" for those big air conditioning bills this summer). 

Check out your local window covering store or go on line for some more information on the energy benefits of solar shades.

Shade for the Holidays - Window Coverings as a Gift

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During the holidays, as we are bombarded with tons and tons of ads to buy more and more stuff, it's often a good time to step back and think about how you are spending that money.  Oftentimes, we - as humans - are lured by the shiny baubles and fancy gadgets, and as a result buy lots of things we really don't need - especially at this time of year.

Part of it is that these little things don't usually cost very much.  But $40 here, $50 there adds up and pretty soon we've managed to spend hundreds of dollars on things we know, regardless of the surprise and delight the gift might bring in the short term, will ultimately end up in the bottom of drawer, piled in a box in the garage, or, worse yet, in the trash.  Meanwhile, the bigger, more practical things on our to do list, or a relative's to do list, especially for our homes, remain just that...wishes. 

In the recent years, due to the trouble in our economy and especially the Southern California housing market, it's become kind of worrisome to put more money in our homes.  Our homes, however, are where we spend a lot of time.  And, regardless of its value, there is a need to keep your home looking and feeling like a home - a place you want to be. 

Window coverings, in addition to other items like painting, or landscaping, can be a low cost and quick way to perk up a living space.  If you're a do it yourselfer, think about the gift of painting a room for your mother, or hanging a picture that's sat in a closet for years for a friend, or planting a tree for a neighbor, for example.  Even if you're not a do it yourselfer, the upside of a down economy is there are lots of good folks looking for some work - so the money you spend there not only helps your family or friends, but someone else's family and friends as well. 

And don't worry - you don't need to squeeze this in before the holidays - give a card with a note in there stating what you'd like to give and do it after the holidays (when we all have some more time).  So, for maybe $50 or $100 and a little time, you can give the gift of a better living space - the gift that will give every time someone opens the door to their home. 

And, believe it or not, window coverings, too, can be very affordable.  A custom ordered roller shade, for example,  can be found on the internet or a window covering store for as little as $40-$50.  And you don't need to do the whole house - just pick one window or room that needs some dressing up and do it!

So, next time that shiny bauble catches your eye, think about where it will end up in 6 or 12 months...vs. the gift of a nicer, more comfortable space for you or someone you care about.  Fixing up someone's home is the gift that keeps giving - plus, you help scratch off one of those pesky "to do's" off the lists we all seem to have - and what a great gift that is! 

Happy Holidays!

The Benefits of Showrooms (for Window Coverings)

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While the Internet is great for research, we, as humans, still like to touch what we buy. We test drive cars, try on clothes, swing golf clubs and walk through houses.  It's very satisfying to experience something we want to purchase...that physical experience allows us to make a connection between imagination and reality and provides greater insights on what we want to buy because it engages all our senses and not just our brain and eyes.

That's why I think showrooms for window coverings are good things.  You can actually see a product with more than just your eyes. You can touch the sample, hold it up to the light, raise it/lower it, and so on - stuff you can't do with a photo on your computer.  In short, you experience the product at a much greater level than via html.

That doesn't mean showrooms are the end-all-be-all to the purchasing process.  The Internet is a great resource, but in this age of data inundation, sometimes its easier to make a decision by seeing (and touching) something for yourself, rather than sifting through mountains of stuff, trying to find a tidbit of info you can trust.

Energy Efficiency and Automated Window Shade Systems

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Technology continues to advance, but in many ways, it hasn’t been well adopted within the housing industry.  But this is starting to change.  Some contractors today are finally incorporating smart technology – referred to as ‘domotics’ – into the homes they are building – still mainly in the high end homes. But it has to start somewhere, and generally once it gets used in higher end homes, it is only a matter of time before it makes its way into mass housing. 

The biggest driver for the smart building is energy efficiency.  We know that costs of energy continue to go up and combined with the trend to reduce our own consumption, demand for energy efficiency is growing.  Systems exist today, via devices like Z-wave modules and iPad applications, to control your appliances, lighting and other home systems remotely, but these are primarily after-market solutions – good, but not great.  The best way to get results from domotic systems is to have them designed into the house from the start – which is ideal for automated shade systems. 

Solar shades especially are well suited to energy efficiency – and combined with automation solutions from companies like Somfy, solar shades can provide state of the art energy management.  The key here is the use of motorized shades combined with smart home technology and sensors to create an automated shade system.  Motorized shades come in battery and AC formats, but AC is generally preferred, especially for energy control applications, given its overall efficiency and reduced wastes (i.e. no batteries to throw away). 

For example, an unprotected and closed window that is exposed to the sun can elevate the temperature of the home by as much as 20 to 30 degrees beyond the outside temperature.  So, if its 75 degrees outside, it could be 105 degrees inside.  Energy efficient windows can actually exacerbate this heat retention.  Solar shades effectively block solar radiation before it reaches the inside room, letting very little of the sun’s energy through.  Studies have demonstrated that solar shades can enable a 30 plus degree reduction in the maximum temperature of the room without the use of air conditioning – that’s pretty impressive.  During the winter, blinds lowered at night create a cushion of insulating air in between the fabric and glass, offering reduced heating costs as well. 

Putting this all together with smart systems that sense not only inside temperature but external sunlight and weather conditions as well can really add up to a much more energy efficient house.  And if you are considering building a new home or renovating an existing one, consider adding outlets by windows with heavy sun exposure – you may want to automate your window coverings – if not now, sometime down the road.  Bottom line, as motorized window coverings and smart home technology costs continue to drop and energy prices along with energy conscientiousness continue to increase, look for the smart home – including automated window shade systems – to become much more common.  

Mom & Pop vs. Big Box

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As the owner of a small business, folks often ask me how I manage to survive in this day and age.  I’m not going to say it’s easy, because it isn’t necessarily, but I’m not going to say it’s impossible either.  Even with the economy being in the dumps for the last few years (seems like forever), we’ve managed to survive – even in a business related to the housing industry. 

How have we managed?  Well, like everyone else, we’ve made some changes, tightened our belt and deferred a few things we’d like to do – and that’s helped. But beyond those basic cost-management things, which don’t bring in money, I think it boils down to the difference in buying from a Big Box vs. a Mom & Pop. 

Now, we all want to buy something for the best price, and if I were selling brooms, or toilet paper, or batteries, I probably would have thrown in the towel a few years ago.  It really is hard to beat the big stores on price and selection on those kinds of things – and the efficiency of getting EVERYTHING in one place.  But most small businesses don’t just sell products, they sell an “experience” along with those products – and I think this is where the small business can make their mark and perhaps thrive in this uneven economy. 

Our business is selling custom window covering products, so this isn’t just an off the shelf item you can get at any Walmart – which helps.  However, you can still go to a big box store (you know the places!) or on line and get similar products, but there is still a good market for what we do.  Why is that?  Here are a few of the reasons I think makes a difference:

1)      Attention – small businesses often pay more attention to a customer than a big one.  Customers are not just a number.  Often, when customers deal with a small business, they are dealing with an owner or someone else with a real vested interest in the company’s success.  While not a guarantee, a well-run small business knows its customers and values them.

2)      Knowledge – often, small businesses are built around a core set of services and products, so the owner and employees are specialists in what they do.  Unlike a big box store that can have many different folks supporting a department, customers generally deal with someone very familiar with the business.  That’s a big bonus when a customer is buying something that’s not just straight off the shelf or which they don’t purchase very often. 

3)      Interdependence – when you operate a small business, you are quick to realize how much you rely on your customers.  You don’t have unlimited marketing budgets, you can’t afford television or radio advertising campaigns, and you aren’t traipsing off to trade shows or spanning the globe to find more customers.  You get most of them through other customers – so, you have to make sure your customers are happy and satisfied – that’s your best form of advertising. A big box store can lose a bunch of customers as they have ways and means to just keep pushing more through the door.

4)      End-to-End – When you buy a product that requires additional services from a big chain, often they outsource the service element to a 3^rd party or make it confusing or complicated to procure the surrounding services.  Even if that’s not the case, often, from the customer perspective, it feels like a disjointed experience.  I must attest that while not all small businesses can afford the staff needed to manage the entire purchase end-to-end, more often than not, through their years of experience and contacts in the field, they are able to connect their customers with great businesses to deliver the needed services.

Additionally, there are other benefits when consumers utilize small businesses for their products and services – the money tends to stay local, it helps out their friends and neighbors (even if it’s indirectly), and connects them with their communities.  While big box stores will continue to be a force in American economics, I think well-run small businesses will always have a place in our cities and towns.

Choosing Window Covering Products

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Maybe you’re remodeling, or maybe you’re just tired of the old window coverings, but you’ve decided that you need a change – what next?  Like anything you buy today, the choices can be overwhelming, but by following a few guidelines, you can narrow down your selection to a manageable level pretty quickly.  Some things to consider when choosing window coverings:

1)      How much do I want to spend?  The great thing about the internet is the amount of information you can easily get.  Even though a lot of the window covering products are custom, there are plenty of websites available that let you work up a price.  With some rough measurements and numbers you can work up a number pretty quickly and get an idea of what is in your desired price range.  Alternatively, give your local company a call – they can usually work up a ballpark number for you as well. Typically, the lowest cost products are mini blinds, with vertical blinds and roller shades following. Once you start getting into more fabrics and natural products, the prices can go up quickly, with shutters being just about the top of the range. Also, when pricing, keep in mind what you are getting for that price – for example, does it include measuring and/or installation; what about freight or taxes; what about returns?  Make sure you get an apples to apples number.

2)      What do I want the window covering to accomplish?  Answering this question will go a long ways to narrowing your selection.  If you are looking to reduce heat and make your place more energy efficient, you need something that effectively blocks sunlight and/or helps maintain interior temperatures (something like a solar screen for example). If you want to make sure you have privacy, you need to consider products that are opaque/difficult to see through – for many natural-type products, this may not be the case (unless you add a lining).  If you want air to flow through easily, blinds are great, but shades not so much.  So, think through what is most important for the product to accomplish when you are buying. 

3)      Where am I going to use the product?   Keep in mind where the window covering will go.  If it’s into a bathroom, fabrics, steel, natural products and real wood probably aren’t the best selection due to the high humidity.  If the window covering is going to get used a lot, cheaper products – like mini blinds – might not hold up well.  If it’s going in front of a window or door that’s often open, vertical blinds, for example, can make a lot of noise when they blow. Make sure you understand the environment and activities for the area you are covering and choose appropriately.

4)      What kind of look do I want?  This is probably the most difficult one to consider!  Often, it’s up to your personal tastes and design considerations.  Do I want my windows/doors to stand out or blend in?  Do I want a softer, more natural look or a modern, functional feel?  Do I want something that’s in fashion today, or something more traditional?  Do I plan to keep the room the same for a while, or change it in a year or two?  All those decisions have an impact on the best choice.

Keep these things in mind will help make the selecting easier.  You can do the research online or visit/call a local supplier to get more insights into making the choice that’s best for you.