As temperatures drop and energy bills continue to be a concern, more homeowners are looking for effective ways to improve home insulation. One highly effective and often overlooked solution is the use of interior window shutters. At The ShutterShack, we specialise exclusively in premium plantation shutters, and we’re proud that organisations such as the Energy Saving Trust recognise shutters as a practical way to reduce heat loss through windows.

If you’re looking for a stylish way to make your home warmer, more private and more secure this winter, shutters are a smart long-term investment.

❤️‍🔥Energy-Efficient Shutters: Natural Insulation for Your Windows

Windows are one of the biggest areas of heat loss in any home. Even with modern glazing, a significant amount of warmth escapes through the glass during colder months. Insulating shutters add an extra protective barrier, helping to retain heat and reduce draughts.

Shutters act like a thermostat for your windows:

🪟Open your shutters during the day to let in the free warmth of the winter sun.
🌃Close your shutters at dusk to prevent heat from escaping and keep rooms warmer for longer.

This simple routine improves thermal comfort and can reduce reliance on heating, especially in rooms with large windows, bay windows or patio doors.

🏡Keep Your Home Private During the Darker Months

Winter means longer evenings — and that often means people can see directly into your home once the lights go on. Privacy shutters offer an elegant solution for maintaining comfort while protecting your personal space.

With adjustable louvres, shutters allow you to control how much light enters your home while blocking outside visibility. This is especially valuable for:

Homes with large windows
Bifold doors and patio doors
Street-facing rooms
Open-plan living spaces where privacy matters most

A simple tilt of the louvres gives you full privacy without compromising on natural light.

🎁Shutters Also Enhance Home Security

With Christmas approaching, many homes contain gifts, deliveries and festive displays that could attract unwanted attention. Solid wood shutters provide a reassuring physical and visual barrier, helping keep your home secure and your belongings out of sight.

Benefits include:

Reduced visibility from outside
Added deterrence for opportunistic intruders
Comfortable security for ground-floor rooms
No festive gifts left on display

Shutters help create a secure environment without needing additional window coverings.

❄️A Stylish, Practical and Long-Lasting Winter Solution

Unlike many soft furnishings, high-quality plantation shutters provide year-round value:

Warmth retention in winter
Light control in summer
Privacy day and night
Timeless kerb appeal
Increased property value

As BBSA members, we are proud to promote the genuine energy-saving and practical benefits that shutters bring to both homes and commercial spaces.

🗓️Ready to Improve Your Home This Winter?

If you’re considering energy-efficient shutters to make your home warmer, more private and more secure, now is the perfect time to explore your options. Our expert team at The ShutterShack can help design shutters tailored to your home’s style and needs.

👀Explore More from The ShutterShack

Looking for more inspiration and advice? Here are some of our most popular blogs:

What to Expect During Your Shutter Survey – Everything you need to know before we visit your home.
How to Clean and Maintain Your Shutters – Expert tips to keep your shutters looking their best.
Why The ShutterShack is Bournemouth & Dorset’s Trusted Plantation Shutter Company – Learn why homeowners across Dorset and Hampshire choose us.

GET PLANTATION SHUTTERS TO KEEP YOU WARM THIS WINTER.

As well as giving a stunning elegant look to your room, interior shutters add an effective layer of insulation to your home. In fact, this is their primary purpose in life!

Plantation shutters first appeared in ancient Greece to protect properties from weather hazards and regulate the temperature inside the home. They since spread all over Europe and comprehensive research has evidenced the excellent capabilities of shutters as temperature regulators. They keep homes warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

As such, shutters can noticeably reduce your energy bills by reducing heat loss, controlling heat gain and making your home more energy efficient. A project funded by the Climate Challenge Fund evidenced this by concluding that shutters could ‘dramatically reduce energy bills’. The Edinburgh World Heritage Trust (EWHT) used thermal imaging cameras to show the most effective ways to avoid heat loss and save energy. They established that windows with the shutters closed showed up in the images in a deep blue colour, demonstrating little heat loss.

Plantation shutters are energy efficient

Figure 1 Source: EDINBURGH WORLD HERITAGE Energy Efficiency Guide

The United Nations RENFORUS (Renewable Energy Futures for UNESCO sites) also endorsed the results of the EWHT project; wooden shutters, amongst other things, can greatly improve the energy efficiency of traditional and historic homes, ‘enabling them to contribute to local and national carbon reduction targets.’

Research by the Glasgow Caledonian University was conducted to identify the effectiveness of the various heat loss reduction options. They tested a series of measures on a single glazed box sash window (which had been draught proofed).

It concluded that ‘secondary glazing was the most effective overall option, as it reduced heat loss through the window by 63%. Timber shutters are the most effective option of the traditional methods, reducing heat loss by 51%; Insulating the panels of the shutters further reduced heat loss by 60%; Curtains reduced heat loss by 14%; a Victorian roller blind reduced heat loss by 28%; a modern roller blind reduced heat loss by 22%.’

Research further demonstrated that fitting shutters improved the U-Value from 4.3 W/m²K to 2.2 W/m²K.

The combination of secondary glazing and shutters reduced heat loss by 75% and reduced the U-Value to 1.1 W/m²K.

With such compelling results, it is a no brainer. Whether you already have double glazing or not, shutters are definitely the way forward to make your home more energy efficient and save on your bills. As an added bonus, shutters will give your rooms a stunning makeover, add value to your house, increase privacy and security, reduce noise, save space and offer great versatility with ventilation and light control.

Save on energy bills with plantation shutters

Figure 2 Source: Thermal Performance of Traditional Windows, by Paul Baker, Glasgow Caledonian University, for Historic Scotland.

Interior Wooden shutters are the most energy efficient window covering

Figure 3 Source: Thermal Performance of Traditional Windows, by Paul Baker, Glasgow Caledonian University, for Historic Scotland.

References

BS EN ISO 8990:1996, Thermal insulation. Determination of steady-state thermal transmission properties. Calibrated and guarded hot box, BSI, ISBN 0 580 26826 8 [6] BS EN ISO 12567-1:2000,

Thermal performance of windows and doors. Determination of thermal transmittance by hot box method. Complete windows and doors, BSI, ISBN 0 580 36028 8

http://www.ewht.org.uk/news/109/102/Thermal-imaging-survey-reveals-close-your-shutters

http://www.ewht.org.uk/uploads/downloads/Energy%20Efficiency%20Guidebook%20Final.pdf

http://www.renforus.net/

http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/gcu-technical-_thermal-efficiency-traditional-windows.pdf

https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/your-home/saving-energy