CASE STUDY: A EUROPEAN SCREEN STAR

The installation of screening solution Renson’s Fixscreen Minimal to a residential property in The Netherlands, demonstrates the unique properties of this sun protection product, whose sleek profile is in line with its name.

The modern home required a solution that would help retain cool interiors during the warm summer months, when solar glare was a key contributor to overheating. And importantly, that solution required an aesthetic that wouldn’t detract from the home’s overall look, while enabling high levels of visibility from the interior to the exterior.  

“On the top floor, especially, it got too hot as soon as the sun made an appearance. I’ve got a room up there that I use for my fitness classes, and the large windows always made it tricky to keep the sun out,” one of the residents explains. The problem was just as bad in spring as it would be in summer. “The only difference was that you could open a window at that time of year to let some cool air in.”

Faced with these issues, the owners set out to find a suitable solution to keep indoor temperatures down. They had already considered sunprotection screens when they built the house but eventually moved away from the idea as they feared such large surfaces would not be able to handle much wind. They were told the sunprotection glass would be enough to keep the sun out, but this soon turned out not to be the case, so they had to find another solution. They explored various alternatives, but they failed to be genuinely persuaded by any of the options. “Eventually, we settled on our original solution: sunprotection screens,” the owners explain.

Installer Luc Boonen of sun protection specialist Boonen Zonwering recalls the day the owners came to him with their request: “The only problem was the narrow window profiles of the minimal windows that help define the sleek look and feel of this house. With most existing sunprotection screens on the market, the side channels would protrude in front of the glass, which would be a real shame with this property. ­Luckily, Renson had just introduced its latest generation of windtight sunprotection screens: Fixscreen Minimal, with slimmer side channels and subtler screen boxes for windows just like these. It was as if fate was on our side.”

A wonderfully fresh house, without altering its architectural character

“The fact that the side channels of the screens could be the same width as the window profiles were one of the factors that swayed us,” the residents recall when talking about this successful solution. “On top of that, the transition between both large windows on the ground floor and the first floor was beautifully finished with an aluminium panel in the same colour and plane as the lower screen box. The result is that the screen box is barely even noticeable.” 

After their first spring with the new system, the owners have noticed a real difference in their home: so far, they have been able to keep the top floor entirely fresh. “As soon as the sun comes through those windows, I lower the sunprotection screens. They genuinely help to keep the interior temperature just right, even on hot summer days,” the owners explain. “And that’s before we mention the other big advantage: the screens are transparent, so our view through the windows is never interrupted.”

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