Window Film Basics: Fading

What causes fading on fabrics, furniture, & artwork?

Fading is mostly caused by the Sun's energy, specifically Ultraviolet (UV), visible light, & heat. There are other causes of fading like chemical vapors, indoor lighting, poor dye quality, humidity, etc.

The chart on the left illustrates two important points.

The first being that no matter what we do, fading cannot be stopped. What we can do is extend the life of your belongings and reduce sun damage.

The second point is that the amount of light & heat reduced has a large impact on the amount of protection you will get from your window film.

Any of our films will cut at least 99% of the incoming UV rays, but the pie chart shows that even a film that cuts out 100% of the UV rays will only eliminate 40% of the problem. Without addressing heat & light, there will still ne noticeable fading.

Superior protection can only be achieved by cutting out some of the heat & light.

Do we have to darken your room to do the job?

The answer to this question is NO. We always recommend that you chose a film as dark as you can stand, but remember the pie chart. The important concept here is that the darkest film feasible will give you the most protection.

You can rest assured that a film that cuts out 50% of the visible light will not noticeably darken your room nor will it change the appearance of your home or building.

What about my north-facing & shaded windows?

UV light is reflected all around us just like visible light is and both are present even in the windows are not getting direct sunlight. In fact, most of the ambient UV light is still present on cloudy & rainy days.

From these facts we can draw two conclusions. The first is that all the windows in your home should be considered if fading is an issue, even if they are not getting direct sunlight. The second conclusion is that if you use window treatments to control fading by closing them on bright days and opening them on cloudy days, you will still have a fading problem and window film can help you.

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