Do Blackout Blinds Really Help Keep Cooling Costs Down? Here's What We Found

There's nothing worse than looking at your gas and electric bill during the peak summer months. Trying to maintain the ideal temperature in your home during the hottest days of the year is difficult and expensive to do, especially when solely relying on central air conditioners or fans. Finding ways to increase and circulate air flow within rooms is a key component to efficiently heating and cooling your home, but how can you keep rooms cool once you turn the AC and fans off? All the rage for energy-efficient homeowners, blackout curtains are a go-to solution to help keep your home cool in the summer. While there are many pros to blackout curtains, some homeowners might prefer their distant relative — blackout blinds.

Blackout curtains are both functional and decorative home items. They sufficiently block out sunlight and UV rays from heating up rooms while adding a luxurious, drapey look to windows. Blackout blinds share the same purpose as their flowy counterparts, but how do they fare in comparison to curtains? Do blackout blinds really help keep cooling costs down? As it turns out, they can provide the same benefits, and products like IKEA's $6 blackout blinds are well worth the investment.

The primary intention of blackout blinds is to keep light out of a room. Like their curtain counterparts, blackout blinds are often constructed out of thick and dense fabrics that are ideal for insulating and light blocking. Some blinds can even be dense enough to absorb light instead of simply blocking it, making them even better at keeping rooms cool. Unlike their curtain cousins, however, these energy-efficient coverings are often installed inside the window frame to create tighter and closer fit. Since they're commonly installed as a roller blind, adjusting the amount of light in a room is as easy as pulling them up or down. This installation method, however, can cause small gaps around edges that allow light leakage, so if you're looking for 100% darkness, it might be worth it to layer.

Blackout blinds are ideal for smaller rooms since they do not occupy as much space as blackout curtains. They are placed almost directly onto the windows they cover, not draped around. Stylistically, this makes rooms look more modern and clean. Functionally, for the ultimate light and heat-blocking experience, you can add blackout curtains to a window with blinds installed, creating a super-insulated and light-blocked space to reduce your cooling costs even more.

Taking all facts into consideration, it's safe to say that blackout blinds are a great way to help reduce your electricity costs. Made of denser material, blackout blinds are great at both blocking and absorbing light, preventing it from entering and heating up a room. Without the extra sources of heat, there's no need to run central air or fans all day, ultimately keeping your house cooling costs down. Blackout blinds are also relatively easy to install as long as you measure your window correctly, and they can be quite affordable. They come in a variety of materials and colors, and if you can't find one that matches your aesthetic, you can simply DIY a custom blackout shade to meet your specific stylistic and design needs.

Blackout blinds don't just save you money on cooling costs, they also have the added benefit of helping improve sleep. Because of their dense material and direct placement on windows, the window coverings completely block out light, providing the perfect, dark sleep setting. They can also reduce the volume of outside noise that enters a room, creating a tranquil sleep environment with limited audio interruptions.