For Windows facing outdoors
There are many films that will create a one-way effect to stop people seeing in from outside.
Recommended products: (from darkest to lightest)
- HP Supreme 4 - very dark and non-relfective
- TruVue 5 - very dark with reflective exterior
- Quantum 10 - fairly dark and slightly reflective
- NightSky 10 - fairly dark and non-reflective
- TrueVue 15 - still fairly dark but regular used for privacy
- Silver 20 - mirrored and regular used for privacy
- NightSky 20 - regular used for privacy
- Quantum 20 - should work for many situations
- Slate 20 - semi-reflective and regularly used for privacy
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For Internal Windows
These situations can be quite complicated and should be considered case by case. If you need assistance I can dust off my Lighting Engineer's hat. However here are some general principles.
In an ideal situation the lighting should be 3 or more times greater on the viewed side than the viewing/concealed side.In these ideal situations all that is needed is a reflective film preferably with a less reflective reverse side.
This is an oversimplification. Other factors include light direction, surface colours and the position and proximity of outside windows.
Recommended products for normal situations :
- TrueVue 5 applied to the concealed side, too dark in some circumstances
- Silver Grey 15, similar to Silver Grey 20 applied to the viewed side
- TrueVue 15 applied to the concealed side
Despite the name, Silver Grey 15 is nearly as dark as TrueVue 5 but since the layers are in the reverse order it gives us an option to apply the film on the other side if necessary.
These photos show projects where a one way vision effect was created when the lighting was NOT favourable.
As you can see from the photos, we've created a venetian effect using either;
- a reflective coating on one side and strips of translucent or opaque film on the other side,
- or 2 layers of film, both reflective and opaque, with narrow strips cut through both films.