Helioscreen Articles
Choosing the Correct Blinds and Awnings for Your Home
When deciding what kind of blinds and awnings would best suit your home, there are several important factors to consider:
- The climate in which you live
- The purpose of your blinds and awnings
- The look you want to achieve
- The amount you want to spend
Modernise Your Home While Keeping its Character
Modernising your home is a smart way to make it not only more comfortable and convenient, but also considerably more valuable. People expect a lot of modern features in their homes these days, so if you ever hope to sell your place, you had better get with the times. The following are some of the ways you can update your home without ruining its old-school charm and character.
Paint
The best way to make your home look modern — but not trashy — is to put on a couple of fresh coats of paint. To avoid messing with the character of your place, repaint it in its original colours. Unless you happen to be a professional painter yourself, it’s a good idea to get experts in to do the job, as any house with a poor paint job will lose any character that it had.
Ways to Protect Your Outdoor Area from the Elements
The better you’re able to protect your outdoor area from the elements, the more often you’ll be able to make use of it, as no-one wants to go to an outdoor party if it’s blowing a gale or just miserable outside. Having a few extra tools to protect yourself with can be just the thing to allow you to finally start making full use of your outdoor area. The following are some of the ways you can protect your outdoor area from the elements.
Sunshade
Whether you build a full-sized gazebo or just use a portable umbrella, an important element involved in being comfortable outside for long is definitely going to be having some sort of outdoor shade. While gazebos are great for being solid structures that are spacious and can withstand heavier winds, rain or hail, portable sunshades are handy for being portable shade providers that are light and can go anywhere you want. Either way, a good sunshade may help prevent skin cancer.
Using Your Garden to Increase Your Entertainment Space
Even small gardens take up quite a lot of space, so if you live in somewhat cramped quarters and want to find some extra entertaining space, look to your garden. Your garden can be the perfect place to hold that wine and cheese event, or even a baby’s christening party, but first make sure it is ready for your guests. If you want to start using your garden to entertain, the following are important elements you’ll want to consider.
Lighting
If you want people to hang out in your garden, make sure they can see. There are all sorts of creative lighting systems available that allow you to light whatever you want — from the roses to the gazebo — so get some lights put in. Path lighting is always a good idea for safety reasons, and if people will be eating, make sure they can at least see their food.
Ways to Reduce Your Reliance on Air Conditioning
Having air conditioning in your home is absolutely wonderful when you get home on a particularly warm day. However, blasting your air con uses a lot of energy and can cost a lot of money, so you should try and keep it to a minimum if you can. The following are some of the ways you can rely less on your home air conditioning system.
Screen doors and windows
If you don’t want to have to rely on your fake breeze so much, then you’d better let the real one in as much as you possibly can. Getting exterior screens put on all of your doors and windows can make a huge difference, as the breeze will be able to come through your entire house, and security screen options make it so that you aren’t leaving yourself vulnerable while you do it.
5 Biggest Dangers of the Sun
The sun — it’s been around for a pretty long time. So why is it that, in the last couple of decades, we’re hearing more and more about the dangers of the sun? Surely something that has given life to the human race and which we’ve lived with for countless millennia can’t be that bad? While this skepticism is understandable, the fact is that the sun is dangerous. In this article, we’ll explain exactly why. We’ll also list some of the biggest risks of sun exposure, as well as some steps that can be taken to deter the harmful effects of the sun, such as using sun screen or installing roller blinds in your home.
Why is the sun dangerous?
The first thing to understand is that it is not sunlight that harms us. On the contrary, it is the sun’s rays that we cannot see that cause damage. These come in the form of UV rays — more specifically, UV-A, UV-B and UV-C. The latter, UV-C, are the most dangerous rays of all, but luckily, they are unable to reach the earth’s atmosphere and do us harm. However, UV-A and UV-B can break through our ozone layer, carrying too much energy for our body to handle. It can mess with our molecules and knock electrons from atoms, leading to changes in our chemical structure, resulting in sunburn (at best) or even skin cancer (at worst).
An Introduction to Domotics
The field of domotics — more commonly known as “home automation” — is one that is becoming increasingly important in the 21st century. As technological strides are made, we’re discovering ways to automate our homes in ways that, just a matter of decades ago, were the stuff of science fiction. In this article, we’ll introduce you to domotics, discussing its benefits, some of the areas of the home where domotics can be applied (such as roller blinds and automated lighting), and the types of technologies used to control these areas remotely.
What is domotics?
It could be anything from an advanced home security system to something as basic as a system designed to turn lights on and off at the appropriate times. Essentially, anything that adds an element of automation to the home or to household activities falls into the category of domotics. What’s more, domotics is becoming increasingly affordable, with these once-wondrous technologies being implemented in ways that are simple and accessible for the average homeowner.
What are the benefits of domotics?
5 Materials Used in Window Blinds
Wherever you go in the world, you’re likely to find window blinds. And wherever you go, most of these window blinds will have a few things in common. They will, for example, be fitted on the window of dwellings — of places where people live. They will generally be around the same size of that window, or possibly a little bit bigger. And their job will be much the same; to control temperature in a room — either by keeping the heat of the sun out or by retaining warmth from within — or to provide privacy for the residents from the gaze of neighbours, passers-by and unwanted sticky beaks.
However, despite all these similarities, blinds come in a huge range of different forms. There are, for example, many varieties of blinds, from the horizontal slats of the Venetian blind style to vertical blinds, Roman blinds and even automated roller blinds. However, in this article we’re going to look at another differentiating point of window blinds — the materials used. After all, all over the world, window blinds are made from a range of different materials, each with their own range of benefits.
A Brief History of Window Blinds
In the 21st century, window blinds are — along with curtains — the most common type of window covering. In fact, you’ll scarcely find anyone in Australia who isn’t familiar with window blinds of some variety. And that being said, the varieties are many, including Venetian blinds, vertical blinds, roller blinds and many more. In this article, we’ll briefly look at the history of this ubiquitous window covering, from its humble beginnings in ancient civilisations to its modern and technologically advanced incarnations.
Blinds in ancient times
The earliest records of blinds being used by human beings date back centuries to the nomadic tribes of African and Asian deserts. These primitive people used basic sheets to cover the windows of their dwellings in order to block out the harsh desert sun.
Understanding Ultraviolet Radiation
We all know that Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is bad for us. We know that we need to wear sun screen at the beach and install roller blinds in our home in order to ensure we stay protected. But do you actually know what UV radiation (also known as UV rays) really is? Do you know why it’s dangerous? In this article, we’ll attempt to give you a simple explanation of how UV radiation works.
Let’s start with the basics…
At its most basic level, UV radiation is a type of energy travelling through space. This category of energy is known as electromagnetic radiation and also includes visible light, x-rays, infrared ways and radio waves.
The energy travels in the form of waves; a measurement of this energy, then, is what is known as a ‘wavelength’. The larger the wavelength, the less energy there is; visible light, for example, has a longer wavelength than UV radiation. This means that UV radiation has more energy and, thus, is more dangerous.
