Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My parents do not like to run the A/C in the summer whatsoever. The days they DO run it, it is not as efficient at keeping the house cool. The sun faces their room and the living room during the hottest part of the day. Because of this, their room makes the rest of the house hotter. I decided to buy this for them because last year I suggested they use a dark blanket to block the sun out. They did the entire summer, but this year they haven't been. Their room also faces a toll road, so I can also comment on this, as we do not have sound-proof windows. Right off the bat, my dad loves these curtains. he is the most apt to use these in order to nap during the day as he sometimes has nighttime work shifts and sleeps in the day. During the brightest time in the day, the sun is probably blocked 95% with these curtains, while 4% makes it out the sides, and up and down, and the last 1% coming out through the fabric. My parents do not have blinds to help whatsoever. Because I bought them the chocolate color to match their room, instead of the black, I think their is more room for light to come through. Black absorbs color the best, so if you are really sensitive to light and don't care about looks, do the black. If you aren't picky, the brown is functional if you are trying to match a room. For the heat, I would say just cutting out the light has made the upper part of our house much cooler. I don't think you could cut away light without cutting away heat as well. Since it is not made of double layers or special material, I don't think the fabric itself dispels heat in the way some might hope. Does it cut away heat? Yes. Will it act as insulation? NO. As for sound, I mentioned that we live up against a toll road. This claims to deflect a lot of noise, but I think it is much like the heat situation, where simply because you have this against your window, it muffles the sound a little. I went into my parents room and, with the window open, could still hear the cars speeding by. Had I shut the window, I'm sure that the noise would have disappeared. Since we have lived in our house for over twenty years, the noise from the cars is almost like white noise for my parents. They are so used to it that the blinds don't really matter. I didn't buy this to block out sound, but it does help a little. I bought this to block out light and *help* with the heat. I did not purchase this for sound-proofing, but I got a little bit of that. Would I say this product has lived up to what it was supposed to do? Yes. My parents don't have to worry that their room will be a sauna when they don't run the A/C and if they do it will work more effectively because the curtains are there.