Reply To: Curtains – Thermal performance

[Ian Mayes]

Hi Miranda,
“thermal backing” , doesn’t add anything thermally to a single layer of material, as long as that material had a close weave originally. Thickness is not that relevant, unless you got to something like velvet , that has air held ” in it”. I guess it would slow down air movement, but if it is air flowing through your curtains that is causing your heat loss, then you have a great big draught problem that curtains won’t help.
It is not about air passing through the curtain, but heat energy passing through. The layers of air that are stuck to both sides of the material slow down the movement of heat. And the extra pocket of air you get when there are 2 layers of material helps in the same way. The same way that all bulk insulation works, lots of pockets of air. And that’s how I’d describe it to the client. The more air pockets, the better. So really the curtain is just a surface for air to stick too and when you add layers , you add pockets of air.
Hope that helps.
Ian

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