Tinted Windows or Screens for Home?

We have "double cell" cellular shades and they work great. Our eating area in the kitchen gets really hot and when I close the shade, it makes a huge difference. It isn't room darkening because I like some light coming through. In our playroom we went a little cheaper and got single cell shades and I regret it. They help but it still gets too warm in there. We put the film on the back
door in there and it didn't do much plus it was a HUGE pain to put it on because we didn't want any bubbling. Almost impossible.

My brother and his wife bought the solar screens for their old house and they said it made a huge difference. Not sure on the price but I know they were pretty high.

I love my solar shade. It doesn't give privacy- it's see-through esp at night with the lights on, but that's not a concern for me. I got it at blinds.com; the prices depend on the size of your windows, but they are very reasonable, send free samples so you can choose colors and weave, and they were fast shippers. Hope you find something!

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Someone just posted on here yesterday that she bought some thermal curtains from the dollar store, they worked amazingly well. You might want to try those first. Good luck!

We've had both.

The heat blocked by both was - or seemed to be - about the same, but I prefer the tinting, because it blocks less light, and it's prettier on the windows. Plus, the screens are a pain to take down to clean the windows.

With the tinting, there is a variety that will make the glass shatterproof - we've done this with the windows near the doors.

We installed the tint ourselves in our apartment, and had it done in the the house - admittedly, the tint we did ourselves was an older generation and was stiffer than what they use now, but I would seriously recommend having it installed by a professional. It is hard to put on evenly, and it's unwieldy and awkward in large windows.

Be careful with the solar screens because some can really look ugly from the outside of your house and affect the appearance.

We are on a heavily wooded lot and the house is placed well on the lot, however, we chose to do some window tinting when we built in 2000. I have over 35 windows, some can have no window treatments so that is 1 reason we chose the tint.

Ours is not noticible, a very natural shade, because I didn 't want it noticable. We paid about $2600 for the entire house. No issues with it at all.