How Much are Solar Screens for Windows?

The cost of solar screens can vary widely depending on a number of factors. These factors include your location, the number of windows on your home, the size of those windows, the quality of materials used and much more. The time of year you are shopping for solar screens may also play a factor in the price. Let’s look at all these factors and more to figure out just how much *you* might pay for solar screens.

How Much are Solar Screens?

Looking for a quick answer? Solar screens can be purchased online at SolarScreenOutlet.com for as little as $29 per solar screen. The cost will vary, however, depending on the size of the solar screen that you need. An average sized 80% solar screen (36″ x 60″) costs about $55 which includes high quality Phifer Suntex or Twitchell Textilene solar screen fabric and a heavy duty 5/16″ x 1″ frame.

Read on for a more detailed answer of how much you might pay for solar screens on your home or building…

Location

The state in which you live can play a big part in the price you’ll pay for solar screens on your home or building. If you live in a warm climate state like Texas, Arizona and Florida, these states have a lot of solar screen contractors and so you’ll probably find better pricing ($50-$100 per screen) due to the increased competition.

If, however you live in cooler climate states in the upper Midwest, Northeast and Pacific Northwest, you may find yourself paying more for solar screens from a local contractor. With the lack of competition, prices can be less competitive, which means you’ll likely pay more ($75-$125 per screen).

Even if you live in a warm climate state like Texas, if you happen to live in a more rural area, you may find that “local” solar screen companies will not travel to your location to give you an estimate or perform the work.

Number of Windows

The number of windows you need solar screens for can certainly impact the price you pay per screen. If you want to cover only 1 or 2 windows, you’ll likely pay more per screen than if you were doing your entire home. A lot of solar screen companies will not even come to your home to give you an estimate if you only want 1 or 2 screens. They may have minimum order requirements of $400 or more.

If you want solar screens for all the windows in your home, you might pay as little as $60-$70 per screen, but if you only need 1 or 2 windows done, the price could shoot up to $100+ per screen or more.

Size of Windows

The size of your windows is perhaps the most influential factor in how much you’ll pay for solar screens. The highest quality and best solar screen material is not cheap, so the more you need, the more you’ll pay. Solar screens for smaller windows that are 24″ x 24″ may only cost around $29 per screen. But larger windows (example: 60″ x 72″) may cost $80 or more. Generally speaking, the larger the window, the more material you will need, so the higher the cost.

An average size window of around 36″ x 60″ will cost about $55 if you buy solar screens online (here’s the link to buy them on our website), but if you purchase them through a local solar screen contractor, it could cost significantly more.

Solar Screen Material Quality

Here at Solar Screen Outlet, we believe that Phifer Suntex & Twitchell Textilene solar screen fabric is the best solar screen fabric you can buy. It is made in the USA and it is thick and tough to tear. In our opinion, you just can’t find a better solar screen fabric.

Other than that, we haven’t found other solar screen fabrics to be worth using. You may find solar screens at your local Home Depot or Lowe’s, but if it’s not Suntex or Textilene, I would stay away. It will have inferior performance and may fade and tear over time.

Phifer Suntex & Twitchell Textilene solar screen fabric is the fabric we use here at Solar Screen Outlet because it comes with a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty and it does an excellent job at blocking the heat from the sun.

If you find an unusually low price for solar screens online or from your local solar screen contractor, do your homework and find out what kind of solar screen material they are using.

Type of Material (80% vs 90%)

There are several different varieties of solar screen fabric even within the same manufacturer or product type. The two most popular, however, are 80% and 90%. The 80% solar screens block about 80% of the heat that would normally come through your windows and heat up your home in the summer. The 90% screens block about 90% of the heat and glare.

Some manufacturers even have solar screen material that is as low as 65% and as high as 95% or even 99%. The higher % products contain more material (the openings are much smaller) so they will be more expensive than the lower % materials. If you live in a really hot climate, your best bet is probably the 90% material (or 95% if you don’t mind blocking most of the view from the inside), but if you have a great view to the outside, then 80% solar screen fabric provides a nice balance between heat blocking and outward visibility.

Time of Year

If you’re shopping for solar screens in late spring or in the middle of summer, you may find prices for solar screens are a bit higher. This is due to the fact that spring and summer is the busy season for solar screen contractors, so they don’t have to offer incentives and discounts to get customers to buy them.

But if you can wait until late fall and winter, you may be able to score a deal with a local solar screen contractor or even an online solar screen retailer because they don’t have as many customers. Since demand is low in cooler months, the prices may also be lower.

Got Grid?

Another factor that can influence the price of solar screens is gridwork. Most solar screens come without any additional bars or separators on the interior of the screen, although many solar screens have a single crossbar, which provides rigidity to larger frames and can also be a nice aesthetic.

But if you want any sort of grid pattern on the inside of your solar screens, you will pay a lot more for them. Depending on the contractor or online retailer, you could pay 2x or 3x the cost of a standard solar screen if you want a fancy grid pattern, so keep that in mind.

Online vs Local Contractor

While you can’t buy custom solar screens from Amazon (yet), you can buy solar screens online from us here at Solar Screen Outlet. This kind of goes without saying, but if you buy solar screens online, you’ll have to do a bit of the work yourself. From assembly to installing them on your home, putting in a little DIY effort can certainly save you hundreds of dollars or more.

If you purchase solar screens through a local contractor, they will do the measuring, assembly and install so expect to pay them for all that labor. Here’s what one of our recent customers said about how much he saved buy purchasing solar screens online at Solar Screen Outlet:

We’ve had customers report savings of up to 80% vs buying from a local contractor.

Get an Exact Price for Your Solar Screens

Here at Solar Screen Outlet, you can purchase your solar screens directly through our website. Our product ordering pages contain a form where you can put in the exact size you need and the price will auto-update based on the sizes you put in and the options/upgrades you choose.

As we mentioned above, you could pay as little as $29 for a custom solar screen kit, but the average price for an 80% Solar Screen Kit w/ Frame is about $55. If you want a 90% solar screen, you’ll pay about 15% more.

Solar Screen Cost

If you are simply trying to find a general cost for a particular solar screen or a bunch of solar screens, then head over to our 80% Solar Screen Kits w/ Frames page here. Read through the description, then scroll down to the form. Put in your width and height, then scroll down to see the updated price below the form. That is the full price you’ll pay and if you spend $129 or more, you’ll get free shipping. Sales tax is only charged to customers in the great state of Texas.

Let us know if you have any questions about solar screen pricing for your home or building.