Window roller shutters are one of those household additions which perform several very different functions at the same time. If you are careful about choosing your shutters, you can improve the aesthetics of your home seen from outside, improve the ambience inside (especially true if your neighbourhood contains eyesores such as neon lights in your vicinity), insulate yourself from the noise of the outside world, and make it harder for intruders to break in while still allowing an escape route for you and your family.

Yet as with any other purchase, you need to shop carefully when buying window roller shutters, to ensure that you meet all your requirements. Some of these will be more important and others less important in your circumstances, so you'll need to make a choice of roller shutters based on how significant you consider each factor to be for your family.

#Window roller shutters and noise insulation

An often-overlooked benefit of installing window roller shutters in your home is the reduction in noise from outside. Time and time again, studies have shown that shutters are an effective way to reduce the amount of noise penetrating into your home. So if you live on a busy street, or on a main road with constant traffic noise, you should consider roller shutters as a way of blocking out the noise. It could help you sleep, or just to retreat into your personal castle without being reminded of the stress of the outside world.

So when you are choosing window roller shutters, ask whether they have been certified as reducing noise by a certain amount. Many have been, and even if they have not an experienced builder should be able to give you an estimate of the noise reduction properties of the materials and design being used.

#Security considerations

Obviously one of the most common reasons for buying roller shutters is the increased security they offer for your home. This may be more or less important to you, depending on your situation. If you live in a high-crime area, have many valuables in your home, or are frequently away from home for long periods, then the security of your home is naturally in peril, and window roller shutters can be a part of the solution.

If security is your main consideration, you can effectively discount wooden roller shutters. Some plastic shutters might be of value to you, but in most cases your best choice is shutters made of steel or aluminum. Just as important, look at the design. Just because something is made of steel, that doesn't mean that it is necessarily secure. When security is paramount, check that your roller shutters are strengthened in both dimensions - that is, check that it would not be possible for an intruder to separate the pieces of metal, and thus to force his way in. Just as importantly, ensure that the window roller shutters will tightly cover the entire area of the window. A window roller shutter would not be much good if it were possible for an intruder to reach around it and unlock it.

#Safety considerations

There's an apparent contradiction between safety and security. You want window roller shutters that will keep all intruders out. But at the same time, you need to be sure that, in the event of a fire or other catastrophe, anybody inside the building could escape through the windows. Admittedly, this is less of a problem in windows that would never be used as escape routes - such as those several floors up. But the ground-floor windows which most need shutters as protection against intruders are precisely the windows which would be much-needed as escape routes in the case of a disaster.

The contradiction isn't insurmountable: various clever minds have dreamt up quick-release mechanisms which make it easy for anybody inside the building to release the blinds, but impossible for anybody outside to do so. This, of course, is exactly what you want, and as long as you include this requirement in your shopping criteria you should have no difficulty in combining safety and security.

#Additional considerations

It is also prudent to note that roller shutters are foam injected giving them their unique insulating qualities. They will keep up to 90% of the harsh summer heat from entering through the window and in winter retain up to 70% of the inside heat escaping out through the window. Window roller shutters are also a godsend for shiftworkers as they can block out all light entering through a window during daylight hours, not to mention the noise reduction, allowing the shiftworker to get high/her much needed sleep.