I had the opportunity over last winter to take measurements of the R-values for two types of Comfortex ComforTrack cellular shades -- the light-blocking and the light-filtering shades. I tested each type with and without the ComforTrack side seals. It has taken a while to process the data. The abstract of the results is at: http://www.residentialenergylaboratory.com/testing.html. The full report is at: http://www.residentialenergylaboratory.com/report_on_comfortrack_cellular_shades.pdf. I would certainly welcome any comments or corrections. Lee Dodge

Thank you for posting this! It was very informative and well researched!

You asked for any comments so I came up with the following:
- can you re-do the photos for Figures 1 and 2, to make them clearer?
- the second paragraph of the Abstract seemed overly technical (for an Abstract)
- the first paragraph of page 7 uses the term 'assumption' twice, which reads oddly (IMO)
- was it necessary to show the results in both SI and US units? I thought the US measurement was the standard. The two systems should be exactly comparable so could you have combined the two onto single graphs, e.g. with the vertical-axis in SI units on one side and in US units on the other side?
- how's this for a Conclusion: "Side-seals improve light-filtering shades by 2x and light-blocking shades by 2x-3x, but the effect is reduced at more extreme temperatures." Does that sound right?
- on page 23, when you say "condensation could be improved" do you mean "increased"? In this circumstance 'improved' should mean less condensation, no?

bsmith1051-

Thank you for the careful review and the comments. Concerning the units issue, most of us in the U.S. are used to seeing things in "American" units, and I am not sure for people in the rest of the world. I know the PassiveHaus folks in Germany like SI units. I feel like the U.S. is becoming the lone backward country in the world still stuck using antiquated units that make scientific calculations tedious. Therefore, I would like to retain both sets of units in the report, so that it can be used by anyone in the world. It does make reading the report more difficult. I will try to include two sets of vertical axes on the graphs to reduce the number of graphs, although one advantage of on-line reports is that printing costs are less of an issue.

What I was trying to say about condensation on the windows is that the side seals on the shades might make the problem more severe or less severe, since there are arguments for each, but I don't know the answer. The wording that I used was unclear, and will be changed.

Thank you for the help.