Thermal curtains: what keeps the Dubai heat out
Short answer. When the Dubai sun shines on your windows for hours, thermal curtains with an interlining and a pale lining facing the glass keep out the most heat. Hang them from a ceiling track and close them before the sun arrives. Even then, a little heat still reaches the room. We measure those windows for you on a free home visit.
On an August afternoon, in a living room that faces west, the sun reaches the glass soon after lunch and stays until it sets. By 4 pm the air conditioning hasn't paused, and the sofa by the window is warm to the touch.
August's daily high averages 42.1°C, and a Dubai year brings about 3,570 hours of sunshine (Dubai Meteorological Office figures, 1977 to 2015). Below, we follow that heat into the room: which curtain keeps most of it out, what your windows need, and what no curtain can fix.
What kind of curtains keep heat out?
Thermal curtains are curtains with an extra layer, a thermal lining or an interlining, that slows heat crossing the fabric. Any curtain meets sunlight that is already through the glass. Closed, its back reflects some of that sunlight out again, and the rest warms the fabric and the air trapped behind it.
Four things decide how much heat a curtain keeps out:
- The lining: every extra layer is one more the heat has to cross. Unlined fabric warms right through.
- The backing: its colour decides how much sunlight is reflected back out and how much is absorbed.
- The fit: gaps at the ceiling, the sides and the floor let the trapped hot air into the room.
- The timing: a curtain can keep heat out, but it can't take back heat already inside.
A curtain's three layers
Six situations and what each one needs
- Your villa has double-height glass. That much glass lets in a lot of sun. A lined curtain of that height is heavy, and it needs drawing every afternoon, so it is worth putting a motor on its ceiling track.
- You rent a glass-walled flat. Lined curtains cut the heat from all that glass, but every track we fit is screwed in place. Unless your contract allows it, drilling needs the landlord's permission (Article 19 of Dubai Law No. 26 of 2007). You return the flat as you found it (Article 21). This is information, not legal advice.
- The nursery faces east. In June the sun rises around 5:30 am, so an east room is bright and warming before breakfast. A pale-backed blackout lining, closed from bedtime, keeps a sunrise-facing bedroom darker and cooler for longer.
- You work at a desk in the sun. Blackout all afternoon would leave you working in the dark. With a sunscreen roller blind down, you can read your screen again, and the open weave still lets you see outside. Close a lined curtain over it when the room is empty.
- Two quotes both say "thermal". The word alone says little. Ask both which lining they mean, what colour faces the glass, whether there is an interlining and how far the track reaches either side of the window. Once each prices the lining as its own item, you can compare them fairly. We price each window separately, each part on its own line, and our price guide shows what those lines are.
- You already own the curtains. If the fabric is still sound, we can add a thermal lining or interlining to them. Fabric the sun has already weakened isn't worth lining, so let us see yours first.
A desk by a lowered sunscreen roller blind
Are thermal curtains the same as blackout curtains?
Blackout and thermal curtains are not the same. Blackout is about light: its lining keeps the room dark. Thermal is about heat: extra layers slow the sun's warmth.
A blackout curtain keeps heat out as well when the side facing the glass is pale. A dark back keeps out far less, but it won't make the room hotter than bare glass would.
| What hangs at the window | Light through it | Heat kept out, closed in direct sun | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlined sheer | Most | Little | Glare and daytime privacy |
| Unlined curtain | Softened | Little | Windows with little direct sun |
| Curtain with a standard lining | Dimmed | Some | Rooms that keep some daylight |
| Curtain with a blackout lining, pale backing | None through the fabric | More | Bedrooms and west rooms |
| Curtain with an interlining, pale backing | Little | Most on this list | Sunny rooms you can keep dim |
| Curtain with an interlining and blackout lining, pale backing | None through the fabric | Most on this list | Hot bedrooms, tall west glass |
| Sheer and lined curtain on a double track | Chosen hour by hour | As the lined curtain | Most rooms that face the sun |
A sheer on its own softens glare, while most of the heat comes straight through. On a double track, the lined curtain closes in front of the sheer, which hangs nearest the glass. A blackout roller can also sit behind the curtain.
Most of our blackout fabrics are coated on the back in grey, white or cream, depending on the fabric; for heat, choose a white or cream back. A dim-out or sheer fabric gets a blackout lining sewn in, and we add thermal linings or interlinings too.
Sheer by day
Lined at night
One double track, day and night
What colour curtains don't attract heat?
For heat, look at the back of a curtain, not the front. A white, cream or silver backing turns more sunlight back through the window. A dark one absorbs it, warms up and gives that warmth to the room. With a lining behind it, the room side can be any colour.
If you love a deep colour, keep it on the room side and line it in white or cream. Unlined, a pale fabric stays a little cooler than a dark one, but both let the sun's warmth through.
A lining protects the colour too. UV readings published for Dubai reach 11 to 12 in late July, a level rated extreme. Without a lining, the sun falls on the back of the fabric you chose; with one, it falls on the lining instead. That is why a lined red holds its colour longer.
How long curtains last in this sun depends on how many hours of it they take, so no one can honestly promise a number of years. The sun wears out the lining before the fabric it shields, and a lining can be replaced. Our 2-year warranty covers the stitching and making, not fading from the sun.
How should a curtain hang to keep heat out?
Hang a heat-blocking curtain from a ceiling track, let it overlap the wall on both sides, and take it down to the floor. That closes the three gaps where warm air escapes from behind it: over the top, round the sides and under the hem.
The air between the curtain and sunny glass heats up and rises. Through a gap at the top it flows into the room, while cooler room air is drawn in at the bottom to replace it.
An eyelet curtain on a pole leaves a gap above the fabric, so more warm air gets through there. The same closed edges stop light getting round a blackout curtain.
Every extra layer adds weight, and gypsum board is soft. In a gypsum ceiling, we drill the board, fit gypsum plugs and fix the brackets before the track goes up.
Eyelet curtains on a wall pole
When should you close curtains against the sun?
The hour to close a curtain depends on which way the window faces. Aim to have it shut before direct sun lands on the glass, when most of the heat arrives. From late March to late September the sun rises north of east and sets north of west, so even a north window catches some summer sun.
| Your window faces | Direct sun | Close it |
|---|---|---|
| East | From sunrise to late morning | Overnight; open it once the sun moves off the glass |
| West | Early afternoon to sunset | Before lunch, ahead of the sun |
| South | Around midday, more in the cooler months | Late morning on sunny days |
| North | The least; low sun early and late in summer | Rarely; a sheer is usually enough |
On a curtain drawn by a motor, a timer can close it at the same time every day, even while you're away for the summer. Tell us whether you use a remote, a phone app, a wall switch, or Alexa, Google or Apple Home, and we recommend a motor to suit.
Will thermal curtains lower your electricity bill?
Your bill can come down with thermal curtains, though nobody can tell you in advance by how much. Heat stopped at the window is heat the air conditioning never has to remove.
Air conditioning made up about 70% of a household's electricity bill in DEWA figures reported by Gulf News in 2019. In DEWA's own summer advice, curtains share a list with awnings and shades.
The difference depends on your glass, the way it faces, the thermostat and how you use the room. This guide gives no percentage for that reason: an honest figure would have to be measured in your own home.
No curtain stops warm air leaking in round a badly sealed frame, and an open one stops no sun at all. Outside shading, where your building allows it, keeps the sun off the glass altogether.
Worth knowing: the layers that keep heat out make a curtain thicker, so it needs more stack-back, the space where the open curtain gathers at each end. On a track that stops at the frame, the stack covers part of the glass. Run the track past the frame and the stack rests against the wall instead.
Show us where the afternoon sun lands at the free home visit, and we measure each window for its track and drop. Then our own workshop makes your curtains to measure.
Stack on the glass
Stack past the frame
Where an open curtain gathers
Questions people ask
Which curtain gives floors and furniture the best sun protection?
Sun-blocking curtains with a lining give wood, leather and fabric the most protection, as long as you draw them while direct sun reaches the window. Ultraviolet light does much of the fading near sunny glass, and bright daylight adds to it. A sheer lets some UV through, so it can't do this job alone.
Do thermal curtains keep a room warm in winter?
A closed thermal curtain slows the warmth leaving through the glass on a cool night. That is the job these linings are best known for in colder countries. In Dubai the summer job matters far more, and in both seasons the curtain does most when it reaches the floor and overlaps the wall.
How do you clean thermal or blackout-lined curtains?
Start with the care label on each layer. A coated blackout back often can't take a hot dryer, or an iron on the coated side. A sewn-in lining or interlining is cleaned with the curtain, so follow the strictest label of the layers. Cleaning them is not part of our service.
Do thermal curtains reduce outside noise?
Outside noise drops only a little behind a thermal curtain. The thick layers absorb echo from hard floors, so the room sounds calmer. Traffic and building work still reach you mostly through the window. If noise bothers you as much as heat, tell us at the home visit: a heavier, close-woven fabric helps with both.