Recently We Were Asked to Provide A Window Treatment Solution at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Wallace Memorial Library

The windows are tinted, which helps reduce glare. The old shades were made with dark cloth which also helped with glare. In addition, the school requires that the shade cloth be dark so as to maintain a consistent look from the exterior. The problem was heat gain. Because this was primarily a south elevation, it receives direct sunlight in the winter and less direct sunlight during the rest of the year. The result has been that the offices often heat-up on those sunny days that Rochester is famous for (not really). But seriously when the sun does shine the offices can become uncomfortably warm.

The solution: We’re providing our Blueshade® brand roller shades featuring T-screen Koolblack® technology. The primary benefit of this proprietary material is its ability to reduce heat absorption (meaning less heat is radiating back into the room) while still reducing glare. And since it’s a dark material it meets the RIT requirement for a dark shade showing on the exterior.

Explanation of KOOLBLACK:

For more information: we’ve attached a two-page PDF as well as a nice little video from Mermet (our window shade cloth partner who manufactures Koolblack at their mill in South Carolina).