I think you would agree, most of us in North America find our homes to cold on occasion. So what is the biggest reason for this, besides the fact that our significant other won't turn up the heat? Windows! Your home loses more heat energy out your windows than any other area in your home. 
So what can you do to help keep the heat in your home? Like I have said in the past, most of you have, or know, what a honeycomb, or cellular window covering are. I however will dive a little deeper into this today. So a cellular shade is a fabric shade that is folded and glued into many different pockets that run horizontally across your window. When pulled up the pockets collapse and fold into a very neat small stack at the top of your window. Because they are fabric they are normally very light so easy for most people to raise and lower, even on large windows. They have hundreds of colors fabrics and styles as well as quite a few different lifting systems including; Literise (cordless), Ultrglide (ratcheting) , Easyrise (cord loop), Power Rise ( Battery Operated), and Motorized (wired). You can also get these shades to open from the top as well as from the bottom. This option can give you privacy in your room at the bottom, as well as the ability to allow light and view in from the top.
So back to that pocket, in this picture it shows a basic single cell shade.
Now I recommend that this style shade be mounted inside your window casings as this is how you get your best efficiency. When it is mounted correctly the air inside that cell does not move very well, when air does not move it is harder for it to change temperatures. So the cold air comes into your home through the window and it runs up against this shade. the cold air begins to cool the shade. Meanwhile the warm air inside the home tries to keep the shade warm. the air in the center of the cells is equaling each of the temperatures out slowly. The best cell shades don't allow much air to flow trough them. So what would make this shade more efficient? 
How about a cell inside of another cell. So now you have three sections for the temperature to even out on. The cell closest to the window will be the coldest, but warmer than the air coming in, the one to the inside is the warmest and so the center cell is warmer than the single cell shown previously. These "Architella" shades from Hunter Douglas are currently the most efficient window coverings on the market. On the last picture you notice the shade on the left has a fabric cell in the center and the one on the right has a Mylar type of center cell. that is the room darkening feature to stop all light entering through the shade.
Now how about the air that comes around the side of the shade. That is just about all that is left. if we can stop the air from moving around it we have done our job. up until a few years ago there was very few options to stop this air flow around the shade. So Hunter Douglas has come up with an answer. Not only will this stop the air from escaping around the shade but if you really want to stop the light in a room for maybe a theatre room or some other reason this works wonderfully. It is called a Duette trim kit. Here is a picture to help explain how it works.
One other thing that most people are not thinking about this time of year is that these shades also help keep the heat out during the hot summer months as well.
Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope I was able to give you some knowledge that you were looking for.
Jim
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