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Pelmets

10 May 2009

Adding energy efficient pelmets above our curtains

Feel free to ask/tell me about pelmets.

Cheers, Paul

In my ongoing quest to improve the energy efficiency of my home I've done most of the obvious things, so now I'm looking at small improvements. Several authorities recommend having pelmets above curtains to prevent hot air flowing down behind the curtain.

However - as yet I can't seem to find any hard research or data to quantify effectiveness of pelmets. Even more frustrating is - I can't seem to find any info on the optimum design for efficiency.

• How close should the pelmet be to the curtain front and top?
• How far down from the top should the front face descend? [A smart-ass friend commented that the optimum pelmet design would be one that drops all the way to the floor.]
• How important is it to have the pelmet covered in curtain like material? Maybe it doesn't make any difference. (I've seen pelmets that are; bare painted wood, wallpapered wood, curtain covered wood. Who knows which is best?!?)

Thus far the best I can find is assertions and experienced guesswork.

I'll keep looking for some better data - but in the meantime I'm going to build something anyway.

Curtain rail widths

• Lounge south wall: 2265mm
• Lounge doors: 1505mm
• Dining area sash: 1241mm
• Adam's room sash: 1530mm
• Office sash: 1530mm
• Bedroom sash: 1560mm
• Bedroom south wall: 1400mm

Materials

I've got 4 * 2.4m lengths of 10 * 90mm dressed pine ($4.77 per meter from Mitre10).

First versions

27 May 2009

Last weekend I glued (PVA) and nailed my first pelmet together. And tonight I found enough time to put it up.

I'd bought some small angle brackets to attach the pelmet to the wall but it turned out there is a perfect sized wood "ledge" that I was able to just nail the pelmet on with two small nails.

And here it is:

It's not painted yet... no rush. I quite like the raw untreated pine look, but I'll probably paint it one day.

It was so easy to do that I rushed into the garage sawed up some pieces for a second shorter pelmet. Then I glue and nailed them together and slapped it up in place on the wall:

It's a good start.

18 November 2009 update

Not long after the last post I built and installed a total of 6 pelmets. All to the same design.

I've no idea how much difference they make. I'll probably never know. But it was a quick and easy job.

Cheers, Paul