On the question of “when to clean my windows?” the answer might surprise you.

Most people associate cleaning their windows with a “spring clean”, of course that’s great and it’s nice to have clean, clear windows to let the natural spring light in, but the most important time to clean your windows is the fall. 

The fall? Why? 

During the winter months we want our windows to help us gain the heat that’s available from the sun to help with the heating of our homes, this is called solar heat gain. The solar heat gain you can get from your windows is materially affected if they’re dirty, you get the most benefit when they’re clean! 

The opposite is true for the summer, but no one’s saying it’s nice to have dirty windows in the summer, it’s just not going to benefit, in fact, it may hurt your home’s performance a bit to have nice clean windows because you’ll be picking up more of the solar heat gain, but that’s what blinds are for!

Not everything is as intuitive as it seems but when you think about it, it makes sense.