For over 30 years, Harris Parts has been designing and manufacturing window blinds and associated components, supplying many of the major home furnishing retailers across the UK. Although this is a relatively mature market, Harris Parts continue to innovate to maintain their market position.
Given environmental concerns and rising domestic energy prices, Harris Parts were keen to understand how they could improve the thermal properties of their roller blinds in order reduce heat loss and help to control household heating costs. However, lacking the specialist knowledge and equipment, they had no means of measuring the thermal properties of their blinds. Under a research collaboration with the Energy House 2.0 team, a number of roller blinds were tested in the Energy House Thermal Comfort Suite where, under controlled conditions, the effectiveness of various types of blinds was evaluated.
Compared to a standard double- glazed window, all the tested blinds reduced the heat loss through the window. However, the best performance was from a blind which incorporates a flexible metallised layer which gave a 15% reduction in the U-value of the window.
Harris Parts now produce a version of this blind which is marketed under the ‘Chromium Blackout’ brand. This blind also has the added advantage of reducing unwanted solar thermal gain in the summer.
Working with the team at Salford has allowed us to develop an important new product line. Our expertise is designing and making blinds and it is thanks to the work at Salford we have gained an understanding of how blinds can reduce heat loss and save money. Using this knowledge, we have successfully developed and launched our Chromium thermal blinds
Steve Day, Operations Director at Harris Parts