Helioscreen Articles
5 Common Types of Window Blinds
Window blinds can be found in almost any home you’ll enter. They provide many household functions, from regulating the flow of air and light into your home to providing privacy, helping protect against theft and adding aesthetic value to your living spaces. In this article, we’ll take a look at five of the most common types of window blinds, including mini blinds, Venetian blinds, Roman blinds, vertical blinds and roller blinds.
1. Mini blinds
A mini blind is a type of horizontal window blind that is formed by long and narrow slats. These slats are kept in place by a string that is situated inside the window. While similar to Venetian blinds in this regard, the difference with mini blinds is that they have much narrower slats; in fact, the slats of Venetian blinds are generally twice as wide as mini blind slats. To open and close the slats, you simply rotate a rod — clockwise for one direction, anti-clockwise for the other. To raise and lower the slats you pull on a string; generally, the direction you pull the string dictates whether or not the blinds stay up or go down.
5 Ways to Automate Your Home
Not so long ago, home automation was considered the stuff of science fiction — a paradigm so far into the future that it could be imagined, but no-one would dare to believe it may become a reality. However, in the last few years, advances in home automation have been made that would leave former generations with their jaws on the floor. In this article, we’ll look at five of the most common ways to automate your home, from heating, ventilation and air conditioning control to retractable awnings.
1. HVAC
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning control (HVAC) is one of the most important aspects in any home — after all, this is the technology that controls temperature, and temperature is key to comfort. While, once upon a time, air conditioning involved pressing buttons on a large unit embedded in a wall or window, these days air conditioning can be entirely automated. This may involve a system with a reversing valve that can switch from cooling in summer to heating in winter, or even an internet-controlled thermostat that can allow the home temperature to be controlled remotely.
6 Ways to Make Your Home More Sophisticated
Everybody wants to make a great impression in their home, and there’s no better way to do this than to design your home to appear as sophisticated as possible. In this article, we’re going to look at six great ways to make your home more sophisticated, from choosing a colour theme to installing roller blinds. It’s your complete guide to residential sophistication.
1. Choose a colour theme
The most important thing to remember about sophistication is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to achieve it. There are basic rules to follow: most importantly, your colours must be cohesive. When choosing a colour theme for your home, select two or three main colours and stick to them. It’s always good to have a feature wall in bedrooms and loungerooms; for example, three cream walls with one blue wall.
6 Things to Remember When Entertaining Guests
When hosting an event at your home, there is a lot to keep in mind. Whether buying food and drinks in the lead-up or ensuring everyone has a great time on the day, you’re undoubtedly going to have your hands full. In this article, we’ll run you through a few things to keep in mind whenever entertaining guests, from food preparation to creating a great entertainment area with retractable awnings.
1. Send invites
First and foremost, you’ll need to ensure everybody knows about your event by sending out invitations. The traditional way to do this is with paper invites sent out in the mail, but these days it’s just as common to send the invite via text or email, or perhaps create a Facebook Event. Whatever the case, ensure people know when they need to RSVP by so you can have a good idea of how many people will be coming.
Retractable Awning FAQ
There are many ways to add value and comfort to the outside of your home, but one of the best ways to achieve this is by installing a retractable awning. Here we take a closer look at retractable awnings with a few frequently asked questions, from what they are and how they work to the various parts that make them.
What is a retractable awning?
An awning is an overhanging covering attached to the outside wall of a building — sometimes residential, sometimes commercial. While traditional awnings have been set in place, it’s becoming increasingly popular for retractable awnings to be used. These types of awnings can be extended or retracted depending on the weather conditions; extend them for cover on scorching hot or rainy days, and retract them to soak up the weather when conditions are perfect.
What are the parts of a retractable awning?
How to Protect Your Home by Thinking Like a Burglar
Sometimes, the best way to protect your home from burglars is to put yourself in their shoes. What are they looking for in a potential target? What type of homes will be easier to break into than others? In this article, we’re going to show you how to think like a burglar in order to keep your home as safe as possible from their ever-present threat, with suggestions ranging from installing roller blinds to forwarding phone calls.
1. Uh-oh… not an alarm system
Burglars want to go about their business with as little attention being drawn to them as possible. And nothing draws attention like an alarm system. Whether it’s a loud siren that is activated as soon as a door or window to your home is opened, or a complex video system that feed back to a control room whenever a motion sensor is activated, burglars will avoid homes where alarm systems are clearly present, Adding signage to the outside of your home warning that the area is alarmed is an excellent deterrent measure.
Top 4 Essential Sun Protection Tips
Everybody (well, except for vampires) enjoys soaking up the sun. Summer weather is great for hitting the beach, relaxing by the pool or simply kicking back on your porch with a good book. However, the sun can also be dangerous — vampire or not. Too much sun exposure leads to risks of premature ageing of the skin, painful sun burn and even potentially life-threatening skin cancer. From sunscreen to retractable awnings, in this article we’ll take a look at four ways to protect yourself from the sun, so you can enjoy the summer months without having to worry about your health.
1. Wear sunscreen
A Home Security Checklist for Holidayers
You’re planning a holiday. Good on you — you deserve it! After working so hard throughout the year, it’s time to relax, unwind and enjoy life without the stresses. It’s all going to be for nothing, however, if you return feeling refreshed only to find that your home has been broken into while you’re away. The reality is, the extended period spent away from home that comes as a result of a holiday provides the perfect opportunity for criminals to break into your home and steal your valuables. Before you go away, draw your curtains or blinds and follow this home security holiday checklist to ensure you don’t become a victim.
Think about lighting
Safe as Houses: 6 Home Security Tips
Your home is your haven from the world, and the security of that haven is key to living in comfort. In this article, we’ll take a look at six secrets to ensuring your home is as secure as it can possibly be, from installing roller blinds and exterior lighting to locking up valuables and keeping them out of sight of potential burglars.
1. Alarm systems
A modern alarm is still one of the most effective deterrents from burglars. These days, an alarm can be much more than a simple siren going off at the front of your home when a door or window is opened. If you want to go all out for home security, you can create entire alarm systems that connect to central monitoring stations where trained security experts can check live video feeds whenever an alert is set off. This also eliminates the problem of “false alarms”, which are a notorious side effect of traditional alarm systems.
5 Reasons Roller Blinds Are Office Necessities
When people need to spend their working days in an office, they want to feel comfortable. Those eight-hour (sometimes longer) days can be made hard to bear if a few basic human comforts aren’t provided. In this article, we’ll take a look at the benefits of installing roller blinds in your office, highlighting the benefits they offer for making the office more comfortable for employees.
1. Keep the heat out
In the hot summer months, not all offices can afford grade A air-conditioning systems. We couldn’t count the amount of offices we’ve worked in with air conditioning systems that just didn’t quite do the job; even worse is the fact that different employees like to have the office at different temperatures, making the fight for control of the air remote fiercer than the fight for the TV remote at home! Roller blinds provide a perfect answer to this; they do an incredible job of keeping the heat out, providing insulation to the office and helping to regulate temperature.
