Blinds that keep a room cool

[JBJ]

Hi. My bedroom is south facing and gets unbearably hot in summer, despite keeping the curtains drawn all day and going up and opening them, and a window, once it gets dark, plus I place a fan in the open window to try and draw some cooler air in. Last year, I spent several nights sleeping on the sofa as my room was still over 30 degrees at midnight! The whole house just seems to retain the heat, but my bedroom gets the brunt of it.

I need some blinds, or window film, or something to try and reflect the heat away a bit. Does anyone have any suggestions of something that actually helps?

Thanks in advance!

Try thermal blinds. They not only keep the cold out on winter, but the heat out in Summer.

If you can afford it and own the house, something which blocks the light before it hits the glass is the most effective thing, like an awning or a blind (perhaps metal) which rolls down from the outside.

If that isn't an option the most effective thing is to get a solid piece of cardboard maybe wrapped in foil and make it fit very snugly inside the window frame right next to the glass.

Or you could try UV window film but I'd get some properly rated stuff rather than something bought on amazon/ebay because those are probably Temu type things with no checks on them.

There are specialist blinds coated with a reflective material which stops the heat from being absorbed into the room. Sorry, can’t remember the name, but they work.

I have shutters in every room, I think they work quite well in keeping heat out, l shut them before the sun gets round to the room, in heatwaves l keep them all shut.

How does the window open? If you can cover the outside of the window this is the most effective. Eg a white sheet or even better, one of those silvery windscreen covers..we have sliding sash windows and do this just by shutting the fabric in top and bottom to hold it in place.

If you own the house it is possible to fit permanent outside roller blinds in a kind of metallic mesh fabric, that do the same job in a much smarter-looking way, but whether that would be appropriate for your window probably depends on how the window opens (unless you were somehow able to access it from outside).

Is the bedroom under the roof?. Having good ceiling insulation is important as the roof itself will be getting very hot in the sun and radiating heat into your room.

Thanks For all the suggestions so far.

Windows open outwards unfortunately, so can’t easily put anything on the outside. There’s a loft (boarded and semi converted) above my room.

I’ll definitely look into proper UV film and thermal blinds. Don’t really want foil else it’ll look like I have a drugs grow going on 🤣