Roller shutters vs double glazing

Hello,
Could anyone help me. We plan to build a house extension later this year and one part of it is a new living area/playing room. Our house is on the side of a hill and it's got nice open views in west-north directions. I plan to put 2 windows on the west 5 m wall and 2 windows on the north 6 m wall of the extension, all of the same size, 1800x1200 or 2100x1200.
First, I thought to use double glazed windows with e-glass. We live in ACT and it's cold in winter here. However, I am not sure that it's enough. Now I am thinking to buy external electric roller shutters to block the sun in summer. Most likely they will be OZroll brand from rollershutters.com.au, so I can install them and our electrician will wire them up. How are the thermal properties of Ozroll electric external roller shutters ? Do we also need double glazed windows or it's an overkill ? I am not sure whether single glazed windows + roller shutters would be enough for cold Canberra winters. The price is also a problem with both double glazing + roller shutters.
I alsotalked to our designer last week and he advised against UPVC frames. He was saying that they will deteriorate quickly under the hot sun. In addition, with a daily change of 20-25 degrees in ACT they can cause other problems due to the high PVC expansion/shrinkage with temperature. Is this really a problem ? I see many UPVC double glazed windows advertised around.

The only advantage of the roller shutter is to stop light and therefore prevent solar heat gain. It will have no effect on conducted heat, which passes through the air and glass. Double glazing is the only way to go if you are trying to keep warm. If you are trying to stay cool then roller shutters will help, as will Low-E glass. I prefer light, so I would go with double glazing and low-E with perhaps an awning to stop the summer sun.



PVC should last in the sun, but the real temperature differences of 50 degrees (summer to winter) is the problem for thermal expansion. Large sashes and large windows are an issue... that is, IMO, over 1500 in any direction - no doubt someone will argue with me...

Ed

I guess it depends on what you want them to acheive - I will say that our roller shutters do a brilliant job of keeping room cool and glare out.
Keeping house warm is not an issue where I live, never gets very cold anyway.

Roller shutters when fully down do make room very dark and very quiet - great for sleeping during the day if you work shift work

Any one know what the cost difference is?

Either way, you have a window, so what you want is the cost of upgrading a window to double glazed, low-E versus a roller shutter? The d/g including low-E will be about $100/m2 dearer that the standard window, now, all you will you need is the roller shutter price. But, don't forget that when you need light, the window will work 100% of the time, whereas if you use the the shutter to control heat, you may need to switch on a light as well.

Ed

And the window will look a lot better!

Yes, I think shutters make a home, look like nobody lives there... or if they do, you would not want them to escape...

I love using shutters. If I am to choose between roller shutters and double glazing, I’d choose the roller shutters.

both roller shutter and double glazing are very useful.

Caution : roller shutter are useful only if there're installed outside.

Like ed @ ecoclassic said the advantage of the roller shutter is to stop light. Indeed, shutters are able to completely obscure the light, it could be very useful, for example if you want to watch a movie during the day, it's better in the dark!
Stopping light is not the only advantage.

thermal :
Outer roller shutters help protect the occupants of cold winter night (heating savings by reducing the thermal convection coefficient on the glazing) and overheating caused by the summer sun (saving air conditioning). Moreover, at night you can open the windows to create a passive cooling and still be protected from burglar and mosquitoes.

Security :
Roller shutters are very closely fitted to the door or window and cannot be pulled away without a great deal of effort. I heard (I'm French) that Australia is the country with the most percentage of burglaries...I think shutters are a good way to prevent burglary.

They also preserve the privacy of the occupants of the house and improve the sound insulation.

Curtains and blinds conventional (inside the dwelling), even opaque or thick, have a limited impact to regulate the temperature of the ambient air. In summer, they may seem to block some of the radiation, but they still leave enter the infrared, so the heat, inside.

In France, every dwelling has outer shutters (roller shutters or window shutters) and whenever I travel outside France dwellings have no shutter and I don't understand why, because it's very useful !

I've got both I had double glazed windows for years but Shutters have had a bigger diference because they've blocked out the effect of the sun. I just drop them when I go to work, come home and the house is cool.

We've got shutters and they are great security, great for blocking light, goodish for keeping the temperature stable. But when they are down oh boy are they down - it's night inside then.

Another thing to keep in mind - who else can see these shutters? When my inlaws are away everyone in my little country town knows because they see the shutters down through the day.

How do roller shutters perform in winter months, energy-wise?
I am building a house, confused whether to go for double glazing or get roller shutters

Get double glazing with LowE glass on the outside to keep the sun away.
Shutters are mostly ugly feauture mainly use for security reasons but it gives you a false sense of security