Will blinds help cool your conservatory?
I would say from experience though that the one thing conservatory blinds are poor at is reducing the heat build up in the room. Of course it will depend on the location of your room with respect to the sun but whilst they are good at keeping out direct sunlight I have found my blinds to be ineffective at stopping solar gain. They may reduce the temperature over having none, but its not enough and you may as well better spend your money on air conditioning or solar coatings than blinds for heat build up reasons alone.
Conservatory blinds are also useful for reducing the effect of UV on other furnishings such as sofas, chairs and tables or whatever else you have in your conservatory. They are however a great addition to make the room fell homely and to help stop sunlight directly through either the roof or windows.
Types of blinds
Conservatory blinds can improve the look and feel of your conservatory significantly. In the evening especially blinds can take away that feeling of being ‘watched’ through the dark glass and make the room feel more like an addition to the home. There are various different types of blinds as follows:
Roller
These are like the blinds you will have in your bathroom or kitchen. They open and close by unrolling from the top usually operated by a cord at the side. They are cost effective for covering a large window area and are easy to fit yourself. They can have a metallised backing on them (facing outward) to reflect some of the sunlight back out. Whilst the can be tied down to keep them still in a breeze they do tend to billow if the windows are open a windy day.
Roman
This type of blind are rolled or folded up at the bottom as the blind is raised.
Pinoleum
This type of blind are typically made of wooden slats. They are in fact a type of roman blind.
Pleated
These type of conservatory blinds are folded up like a fan. They are very popular and can give a modern look to a conservatory. I would say they are probably the most attractive form of conservatory blind though they are probably the most expensive as well. Pleated conservatory blinds are usually on wire guides which helps them keep their shape when they are being open and closed.
Conservatory blinds: Personal experience
You don’t have to use one type of conservatory blind in every window/roof panel of the conservatory. For my particular install we went for pleated in the roof space (which look great when closed) and roller for the windows (much cheaper). The pleated conservatory blinds have guiding wires on them which means they fit the Edwardian trapezoidal roof style, they are tidy and they stay close to the roof panels (whereas roller blinds would have hung down a little). I would say however, that the Edwardian conservatory roof blinds do not open very easily and when open look untidy due to the triangular shape of the roof.
The roller blinds cover a large window area relatively cheaply. The roller blinds do knock with the windows open in a breeze but its hardly irritating. Now we didn’t come up with this idea but rather the conservatory blind salesman suggested it (he also runs the company). Good price, good advice and not pushy – sold!
I would also add that I should have tried to supply and fit the roller blinds myself as its not hard at all. The pleated conservatory roof blinds are a specialist job and I’m really glad I didn’t try it. Overall, they are a good addition to the conservatory but do not cool it enough and we now have air conditioning and two fans in there as well!
How much will conservatory blinds cost?
The cheapest price I found on the web started at £650 for a set of roof blinds for a 4m x 2.5m lean-to rectangular conservatory. This included a survey of the conservatory, measuring it, fitting the blinds and a 5 year manufacturers warranty. On this particular site there didn’t seem to be a linear relationship between price and blind area or length (at least not one I could see) but prices ranged between £650 and £2,000 for a typical conservatory depending on whether there were rectangular or triangular roof panels, or a mix of both.
A second site rather than have an online quotation calculator listed several designs of conservatory along with typical dimensions and pricing for standard roof blinds for your conservatory as follows:
| Conservatory type | Width (m) | Length (m) | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lean to | 4 | 2.5 | £1,900 |
| Victorian | 3 | 3 | £1,900 |
| Edwardian | 3 | 3 | £2,050 |
| P shaped | 5 | 3 | £2,700 |
| Gable end | 4 | 3 | £2,150 |
Again these prices are estimates. Not a huge difference in price to the previous quotations.
As can be seen from the above table the pricing for individual blinds is higher than before but gives some idea of the effect of the type of blind has on the actual cost to install it. Note the prices for the blinds in this case are for the roof blinds only.
Beware though. There are some companies that will try and sell you blinds for a truly horrendous price. I got nervous when the price I was quoted for some additional motors on the blinds (£500 each) exceeded what I expected to pay for the blinds themselves. In the end I paid about £1,700 for pleated roof and roller window blinds included fitting in a 3.5×3.5m conservatory compared to the first quote of £7,000. This high price was from a major player in the conservatory blinds sector – so watch out!
User submitted prices
Below are some prices from users who have either had blinds installed or received a quotation. If you can help and tell us how much you paid or were quoted you can submit your own prices.
| Job type | Description | Price | Region | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservatory blinds | 6 x 240v Somfy powered electric blinds 1500mm x 2000mm supplied only. | £2,700 (Total price) | East Midlands | 2023 |
Conservatory blinds conclusions
Conservatory blinds look great and make the conservatory feel much more welcoming. They reduce the amount of light coming in but do not significantly effect the temperature in the room. A good point to note is that you can mix and match types of conservatory blinds to different parts of the room e.g. pleated conservatory roof blinds and roller window blinds. This allows you to minimise cost and still achieve a good look. Get a few quotes and watch out for some companies trying to charge you simply ridiculous amounts of money for your conservatory blinds.
