Installing 30 Mil Clear Outdoor Porch Curtains - Screened Porch - October 2025

Our screened porch is where we spend a lot of time watching screens. Football season, evening 'shows', etc.  It is not a four-season porch, though.  Might call it 3.5 seasons.  That's because we added Eze-Breeze four-panel windows to the frames and swapped out the screened door for a storm door with a screen.  Eze-Breeze windows are really great.  They keep the dust out.  They also - according to their product page - block UV rays which protects furniture.  

And, in the cold time of the year, they keep out the wind and what I'll call 'extreme' temperatures.  They create an envelope that we can heat and be in the porch when the temps are low.  But, not too low.  

I'd say that we typically get to use the porch all the way through Christmas.  Then, when Winter actually arrives in January, we're forced out of there.  

That's because the 'envelope' that the Eze-Breeze windows creates is 'leaky'.  The windows aren't air-tight and the material isn't glass - it is more like a shower curtain.  That means that while the wind is cut down, the cold 'leaks in'.  Or...more likely...the warm 'leaks out'.  

I've been thinking about how to change that for a couple of years.  I first tried to add in some of that window film.  You know the stuff.  You stretch it out across the window, then use a hot-air blower to make it lay flat.  That didn't work.  

This year, when we were at a neighbor's house, we spent some time on their porch.  They had up a mosquito curtain.  And, they talked about how they have plastic curtains that they install in the Fall that allows them to use the porch all Winter long.  

Of course...I had to go see about these curtains.  

There are a number of products you can buy - just search for [clear outdoor porch curtains] and you'll see various players offering their version.

After some research, I settled on one vendor.  They offer 20 mil and 30 mil clear curtains, but recommended the 30 mil for 'colder locations'.  The 30 mil is 50% thicker, but the price isn't 50% more, so upgrading to the 30 mil seemed like a no-brainer to me. 

They also offer a variety of hanging methods.  They'll ship you custom-sized curtains with grommets that you can hand from pegs, hooks or even on a track.  They also offer screw-snaps.  Like you get with a boat cover.  That was appealing to me, so that's what I went with for our curtains.  

I wasn't sure how they would work and fit, so I only ordered two to start.  They weren't expensive, but they weren't cheap, either.  I figured I'd make the investment in the first two.  Then, see what they were like.  And, if I thought they were going to work, I'd order three more for the windows and something else to handle the door opening.

The first two curtains arrived and I installed them.  It was pretty easy:  I marked and drilled some small pilot holes, then sunk the base of the screw-snap.  The studs are 5/8ths threaded and were easy to go into the wood exterior.  Then, I spread the curtain over the first few snaps and sort-of 'pressed' the next snap into the frame.  That left a grey 'circle' that I could use to place the pilot hole.  I went around and down each side.  Snapping in the curtain as I moved along.  

Here's how the first two look below.  I attached them to the outside of the porch.  My thinking is that using the 'boat cover snaps' makes the install and take-down in Spring pretty easy.  

They're *clear*, but you can tell they're on there from the inside.  

As for their efficacy, time will tell.  They say that 'air is a good insulator', but for it to perform the air needs to be 'trapped' and still.  

My goal with these curtains is to do just that:  trap some air and make the heat transfer slower out the porch.  I grabbed my laser thermometer and when the sun went down, I attempted to see how these were doing.  Was it a perfect test?  No.  But, my test showed that I was seeing about 4-5 degree difference on the frames of the Eze-Breeze windows with the curtains vs the ones that didn't have them installed yet.  

That was enough for me to get my laptop out and order the rest of them.