ᐅ What type of external venetian blinds (also known as louvered shutters) should be used?

Our bedroom features large windows facing east and south, with no neighboring buildings or trees nearby, and we don’t use additional interior curtains or similar coverings:

Light blocking is done exclusively with Roma CDL blinds, and at least we haven’t had any issues with them. They don’t make the room completely dark, of course, but provide more than enough darkness for undisturbed sleep. The following photo was taken yesterday afternoon (with sunlight outside), but it’s only somewhat representative since the camera increases exposure:

The CDL slats close completely flush with each other, and there are no holes for guide cords or similar. The only light comes in at the sides (between the track and the slat) and from below (we have natural aluminum window sills, which reflect light quite well). The horizontal “light stripes” you see are actually just reflections of the back edges of the slats. We have a lot of fixed glazing with relatively thin frames, and the bottom null position isn’t quite right yet (I think the blinds could be lowered about 2cm (0.8 inches) further). Whether it would get darker with real windows and a deeper null position, I don’t know, but I could imagine so.
We currently do not have wind sensors, and even in strong wind, I have not had any concerns about stability. We have experienced rattling blinds maybe three or four times in the ten months we’ve lived here. Interestingly, only in the bedroom... I suspect this is due to alternating suction and wind pressure caused by the corner of the house. We don’t have this issue in the living room, which also has very large window surfaces.

So much for the CDL advertisement 😉. Still: to achieve absolute quietness and complete darkness, roller shutters are probably the only solution. Therefore, roller shutters are likely the better option exclusively for bedrooms. For all other rooms (including children’s rooms), I would always choose blinds—and the CDL are truly a great choice there.

Thank you very much! That definitely doesn’t work for the lady. So, there will be roller shutters on the upper floor 🙂

Hangman schrieb:

Our bedroom has large windows facing east and south, and we have no neighboring buildings or trees, nor do we use curtains or anything similar inside:
[ATTACH alt="20210212_090047_resized_1.jpg"]65539[/ATTACH]

Darkening is done exclusively with Roma CDL blinds, and at least for us, they work perfectly fine. It’s not completely dark, of course, but more than enough for undisturbed sleep. The following picture was taken yesterday afternoon (the sun was shining outside), but it is only somewhat indicative since the camera automatically adjusts the exposure:
[ATTACH alt="20210920_160326_resized.jpg"]65540[/ATTACH] [ATTACH width="111px" alt="20210920_160413_resized_1.jpg"]65541[/ATTACH]

The CDL slats close completely flush against each other, and there are no holes for guide cords or anything similar. The only light comes in at the sides (between the rail and the slat) and from below (we have natural aluminum window sills that reflect well). The horizontal "light strips" are actually just reflections on the edges of the slats. We have a lot of fixed glazing with relatively thin frames, and the lower zero position isn’t yet correct (I think the blinds could be lowered by about 2cm (1 inch) more). Whether it would be darker with true windows and a lower zero position, I don’t know, but I could imagine so.
We currently don’t have wind sensors, but even in strong wind, I haven’t had any concerns about stability. We’ve had rattling blinds maybe three or four times in the ten months we’ve lived here. Interestingly, only in the bedroom... I suspect this is due to alternating suction and wind pressure caused by the corner of the house. We don’t have this problem in the living room, which also has very large windows.

That’s the CDL promo done 😉. Still, it’s probably only with roller shutters that you’ll get total quietness and complete darkness. So roller shutters are probably the better option in a dedicated bedroom. In all other rooms (including children’s rooms), I would always recommend blinds – and the CDL ones are a really nice solution.

I can only say that we have RAL 7016, and for us it is significantly darker. Only some light comes in from the sides, but it remains dark nonetheless.

If I had to choose again today, I would always pick CDL Vision blinds. Especially the children love them.

@Hangman
I’m also planning to install the CDL slats on my house. Can you share any insights about cleaning? The slats close quite vertically and flush from the outside. Is it sufficient to just wipe them like you would a roller shutter? I imagine that might still not be enough to match the cleaning convenience of a roller shutter, since the overlapping of the slats is probably the main issue here.

I’m also curious if you know whether Roma generally offers slat tracking systems like Warema does? That’s a really cool feature, but I believe it also requires special motors.

One more question, are your venetian blinds integrated into any smart home system?

Nixwill schrieb:

And one more question, are your venetian blinds integrated into any smart home solution?

Yes, some of them are. You can find them with one click on the Roma website. Alternatively, you can use the basic drives and connect them to a system of your choice, for example Shelly devices or a “real” system like KNX.

Nixwill schrieb:

I’m also curious if you know whether Roma generally offers lamella adjustment like Warema does? That’s a really cool feature but, as far as I understand, requires special motors.

Roma doesn’t provide that themselves, as such a system would require at least a weather station or another source for sun position or weather data in general. With some clever workarounds, you can estimate it based on geographic location using calculations or web services, but “real” sun data is the more accurate approach. This is usually handled by a smart home system. Roma does not have its own system like Warema.

Uh, ahem, our cleaning routine currently involves closing the blinds during heavy rain and relying on the power of nature 😉 So far, that has been sufficient, especially since they are usually in the upper position anyway (we have only lived in the house for one year). Two months ago, I tried wiping the closed slats on one window, but you have to be gentle because they are not as sturdy as rolling shutter panels. There is still overlap between the slats – for a perfectly clean result, you would probably need to use a brush attachment on a garden hose or something similar.

We don’t have a smart home system, but the builder kindly equipped them with radio motors and provided us with a Somfy TaHoma box featuring three light sensors and a wind monitor. The blinds themselves can be very finely adjusted, so tracking is probably possible (at least with our motors). I haven’t set this up yet because we haven’t missed it so far: in summer, it’s enough to keep the slats horizontal (since the sun is high), and now I might have to tilt them down three or four steps. This can be set as a default with just one button press, which is about a hundred times faster than any ‘smart automation’.