What to choose – blinds or shutters?
Are floor-to-ceiling shutters or blinds suitable for windows on the ground floor (access to the terrace, etc.)? Either way, they should be electric. For some reason I don't see any added benefit to blinds.
We drove through 2 neighborhoods of new construction the other day, and indeed 80% of the houses have blinds. It also makes me ask myself: are we wrong in our thinking? Maybe blinds are better after all?
Answers
The disadvantage of blinds can be that they rattle in the wind, which can be especially annoying in a bedroom. This depends mostly on the type of guide rail, i.e., what kind of cable or rail the blind runs on. Also, many (all?) blinds rise automatically when the wind gets too strong. This means that you actually want them down, but that's not possible until the wind dies down. The advantage, of course, as you say, is that the light gets in when the blinds are down.
We originally wanted to install exterior blinds in our new building – but because of the disadvantages and price, we decided against it and installed conventional aluminum roller shutters.
As a rule, exterior blinds do NOT raise automatically. External blinds can be controlled by a motor, as you are used to doing with roller shutters. BUT: A big disadvantage of exterior blinds is their weight, so they are extremely susceptible to wind. Regular roller shutters have their own weight and therefore are not as vulnerable. The individual slats of exterior blinds can rattle, and more importantly: It can happen that the slats come out of the guide rail, get tangled, bent, etc. This can happen with rail-operated roller shutters as well. It can also happen to exterior louver guides, and we've run into this before. There are so-called sun/wind sensors to prevent this. Although these sensors are optional, they are almost mandatory for exterior louvers that are supposed to last a long time. These sensors measure solar radiation, wind direction and wind speed (called astro functions) and then control the exterior louvers accordingly.
