One way to save money on your heating and cooling bills is to have window films installed on all the windows in your home. They will cut down on the amount of sun streaming into the house and warming things up in the summer and add some insulation to keep the warm air from passing through the glass in the winter. However, there are options available that will not only conserve energy but offer other benefits as well. Here are a few options you can choose when picking out the window films for your house.

Decorative

You do not have to have dark films to keep all the sunlight out and heat in. You can have the films etched. frosted, or even colored to create a decorative appearance on the windows. It is possible to combine these options too. This means you can have colored films that darken when needed and may have a design etched in them as well.

Added Protection

If you are worried about breakage, get window films that prevent the glass from shattering. This is very similar to the film that is put on vehicle windshields. Instead of shattering and sending shards into the room or lawn, the film keeps the glass together. While you will see the cracks and a spiderweb pattern, the glass will be held in place by the film. You can get films strong enough to provide protection during a major storm, keep robbers from breaking in, and protect against people walking on pieces of glass after one of the kids hits a window with a baseball.

Adjustable

You can choose to have films that darken as the sunlight hits them or films that you can control how dark they are at any given time. This can be very handy if you need to have sunlight in a certain room for a certain reason but would like to keep the sunlight from streaming into the rest of the house. Of course, if you are away from home for most of the day, having films that self-darken ensures you are conserving the most energy regardless of the weather that day. 

Talk with a company that performs residential window film installation to determine what you need to keep your energy usage at a minimum while adding to the look of your home. You might be surprised at all the different options that are available.