Mecho Shades were born out of necessity thirty years ago, for a special window wall treatment in an Atlanta office building. In the years since, they have become the solution for solar shading in energy efficiency blinds and shadecloth. The original Mecho shades were a flat, single thickness of fabric that would fit exactly inside of a window's frame, so they have to be custom fitted. Mecho also designed the original roller shade system. They are now found in many "green" projects because of their efficiency in keeping the sun's rays at bay with thermal properties that lead to energy savings and are approved for LEED certification, in commercial projects.
As an innovator in energy efficiency for window treatments, Mecho shades provide a significant reduction in the heat that comes through your windows, when you use the recommended densities for the windows that you are treating. They are now sold in different patterns, weave, colors and densities to match any interior. Because they are woven from vinyl coated polyester or fiberglass yarns, they are some of the most attractive sunshades you can get for your home, although they need to be custom sized.
The learned professors have been at considerable pains in their attempts to make a distinction between tools and implements on the one hand, and machinery on the other. Nor have they arrived much of anywhere. The one is continually shading into the other. Here is an ordinary shovel used by a day labourer in a ditch; here is the same shovel with a somewhat thicker handle, containing a pneumatic attachment which is said to improve its digging power; here is a very much larger shovel with curved ends and steel teeth, hitched to an arm that is hitched to a steam engine, which can gobble up a cartload of dirt at one mouthful. Where does the tool stop and the machine begin? A grindstone is widely held to be a primitive tool; a turret lathe is widely held to be a machine. Both spin around. What is the essential difference? The employment of nonhuman power, steam, oil, gas, has been defined as the difference. Well and good. Then everything worked by human hands and legs is a tool only, and bicycles, typewriters, adding machines, sewing machines, foot lathes, clocks, hand-pumps—are not machines. Which is absurd. And what is one to do with treadmills for grinding corn, whose motive power is said by some to be the donkey, and by some the carrot in front of his nose?
— Stuart Chase (1888–1985)
No other window shades can give you the view outside like the Mecho shades that are made from their revolutionary EuroVeil or ThermoVeil shadecloth. You can see outside like you are looking through sunglasses. It is this quality that makes Mecho shades so popular, especially in tropical areas where the shadecloth might be used to shade lanais over outdoor pools that need the protection from strong sun rays.
If you are looking for a great window shade for your patio door, the attractive Mecho shades can allow you to see outside, yet keep the heat out. You can also get the shadecloth in light or dark colors, blackout and room darkening materials. No other roller shades are as innovative as these shades, although there are some on the market that come close. Because they were the innovators in solar sunshades, most other window shades are considered copycats.
What a contrast between the stern and desolate poetry of Ossian, and that of Chaucer, and even of Shakespeare and Milton, much more of Dryden, and Pope, and Gray! Our summer of English poetry, like the Greek and Latin before it, seems well advanced towards its fall, and laden with the fruit and foliage of the season, with bright autumnal tints, but soon the winter will scatter its myriad clustering and shading leaves, and leave only a few desolate and fibrous boughs to sustain the snow and rime, and creak in the blasts of age.
— Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
What this means to the average homeowner, however, is that Mecho shades originally focused on commercial applications where energy savings could be significant. As the push to lower costs on utility bills made it more commonplace to use window shades that could be seen through, yet could block the heat of the day, other manufacturers applied some of the same principles to roller shades for homes.
In fact, since the original invention of the Mecho shades, there are some window companies that have incorporated them in between two pieces of glass in a double paned window that has the sunshade built in and can be opened and shut with a remote control. When it comes to solar shades and window treatments that offer energy efficiency, many other companies have been inspired by Mecho shades, but they are still considered a top choice in commercial window treatments and you can get the attractive, energy efficient window treatments for your home, too.