Are you torn between deciding whether to choose blackout or thermal curtains as your window treatment? To help you make the right decision that you won’t regret later on, we’ve compared both these window coverings to the fullest considering all the pros and cons, so as to help you select the right product for your home windows.
No doubt, both these types of curtains are excellent window treatments in their own regards. But before going deep into this discussion, you should know what these curtains are and what benefits are offered by them, so as to have a clear-cut understanding of the difference between both these curtain types. For this purpose, we’ve done some research to provide you with definitive answers to all your queries.
Blackout Curtains
Blackout Curtains are designed to create a room darkening experience, thanks to their thick fabric lining that is interwoven in three different layers mostly. They are crafted using thick and high-quality fabric materials and help you get some good quality sleep at any time of the day.
What Is The Purpose Of Having Blackout Curtains?
When fitted correctly, they will prevent sleep distractions or interruptions due to light and sound from the outside world and will also let you control the amount of sunlight in your room interior. Last but not least, blackout curtains of the finest quality can also optimize your room’s temperature to keep your rooms cool during the summers and vice versa.
Manufacturing Of Blackout Curtains
These curtains are made from 100% blackout fabric materials and comprise triple weave technology that provides a high-performance approach to these functional curtains. The middle layer of this multi-layered lining fabric contains quality black yarn fabric that is tightly woven to deliver blackout properties to these curtains. Hence, they won’t allow a single ray of light to pass through them to become practically favorable for your interiors.
Thermal Curtains
As the name suggests, these are ideal to keep the heat in your room by reducing drafts at the window’s seal. They can also block out light but only up to some extent and can muffle out any loud noises since they can act as a sound barrier.
What Are The Uses Of Thermal Curtains?
You can improve energy efficiency in your home with thermal curtains as your window treatments that help to reduce fuel use, lower energy bills, and also improve indoor comfort.
Crafting Of Thermal Curtains
Thermal curtains also comprise the exact number of three fabric layers just like blackout curtains. But, the middle layer in these curtains comprises quality thick fabric that helps to control the temperature of your room, thus providing thermal and insulating properties.
The Best Between Blackout And Thermal Curtains
Now that you’ve had a basic understanding of what these curtain types are and their purpose, we’ll differentiate between them on the basis of their pros and cons to help you decide what is the best for your room interior. For this purpose, we’ve made a list of all the practical favorabilities that you’d definitely want to achieve with curtains. The role of both types of these curtains is discussed below for all such functional aspects, discussed one-by-one below.
1. Insulation
As for the blackout ones, they are primarily designed to block light from entering your room and create a room darkening exceptionally well. However, they do offer insulation but only up to some extent because they are not designed for this purpose.
Thermal curtains, on the other hand, which are also named insulating wall curtains, highly reduce the amount of heat loss from your room, thanks to their thick layer of quality fabric lining in between. Also, they’ll block natural sunlight to optimize your room temperature and keep the inside of your room in the summer.
2. Energy Efficiency
To let you know, your home loses roughly 30% of the heat via windows. But the good news is that your window coverings can reduce this amount of heat loss up to a significant extent, thus saving you a lot of cost on energy bills. In addition to the type of curtain or drapes you choose, the choice of color and fabric material also matters a lot in this regard.
You’ll be amazed to know the difference between the energy efficiency of these two curtain types. With blackout curtains, you can save up to 10% on your energy bills while thermal curtains reduce about 25% of your energy bill cost. Hence, without any doubt, thermal curtains are the right choice if you are looking to buy energy-efficient curtains for your interior.
3. Room Darkening & Noise Reduction
Blackout Curtains are the best option if you want room darkening in your interior to enjoy a good quality sleep at any time of the day. However, thermal curtains are not good enough to create a complete blackout in your room because they don’t comprise the black yarn fabric layer in their lining.
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Speaking of the noise reduction properties, both these curtain types promise to help you achieve a significant amount of reduction for incoming noise. However, thermal curtains are preferred because of their thick fabric lining that helps them act as a sound barrier.
4. Appearance
It is a factor that one would definitely consider for uplifting the interior decor. With the advancement in technology and innovative ideas, many companies are offering modern designs, unique styles, vibrant colors, and astonishing patterns for both these curtain types, that too, in a wide variety of interesting texture options.
Considering the decor aspect, you can have both the blackout as well as thermal curtains in your preferred color, design, texture, and pattern to improve the aesthetic approach of your interior. However, it is advised that you also look for the quality of fabric materials besides the glamorous appearance of these curtains.
5. Maintenance
As we all know, curtains get dirty more often and require timely cleaning and maintenance to have them shining as your glamorous window treatments. Cleaning and maintenance are also the least to be looked upon yet extremely important factors for window coverings. Because buying curtains that require professional cleaning and maintenance for their upkeep will soon put a dent in your wallet and all other benefits offered by them will hide behind this major irregularity.
Blackout curtains can be easily cleaned with regular cleaning techniques like vacuuming, dusting, etc. However, they require deep cleaning every once in a while to ensure getting maximum output from them. On the other hand, thermal curtains are machine-washable for their maintenance and offer ease of cleaning as well.
The Bottom Line!
It is concluded that your personal preferences and the basic purpose of having curtains are the two important factors to decide the type of curtain that suits best in your interior. If you want to attain a complete blackout experience and privacy in your interior, then you should opt for blackout curtains.
However, if you need a window treatment that can reduce the cost of your energy bills, then thermal curtains are the ideal option for you. The final decision is yours to take and should always be made after considering all the pros and cons of these two curtain types.
Wall Curtains