New Year & Peak Season

The quickest assessment is to be in the room at the worst hour. For west-facing rooms that is usually between about three and five in the afternoon; for east-facing bedrooms it is the first hour after sunrise. Note where the sun falls, how far into the room it reaches and what it lands on — a bed, a sofa, a screen.

Separate glare from heat, because they need different answers. Glare is a light problem: bright patches, squinting, a television that cannot be watched. Heat is an energy problem: a room that stays warm into the evening, an air conditioner that runs constantly. Many rooms have both, but usually one dominates.

Look at the glass as well as the room. Clear single glazing lets through most of the sun's energy, while tinted or coated glass has already taken some of it out. Knowing which you have tells you whether a curtain alone can solve the problem or whether the window itself needs attention.

The most effective shading stops the sun before it reaches the glass. Research summarised by the US Department of Energy found that exterior shades cut dangerous indoor heat hours by around 55 per cent in extreme heat, against roughly 18 per cent for interior roller shades. Awnings on west-facing windows can reduce solar heat gain by up to 77 per cent.

Exterior shading is not always possible, particularly in apartments or heritage houses. Inside, a curtain with a pale backing facing the glass does noticeably better than a bare fabric; the DOE's figure for medium-coloured drapes with white backing is a reduction in heat gain of about a third. Closing them in the afternoon matters as much as what they are made of.

Sheers and screen-fabric roller blinds cut glare while keeping the view, which suits living rooms used in the afternoon. They do much less for heat. UV window film is almost invisible and blocks most ultraviolet light, which protects fabric and furniture from fading, but on its own it is a partial answer to heat.

The last week of December brings late nights across much of coastal Goa, with parties, music and fireworks going on well past midnight. Guests and family who go to bed at three in the morning still wake when the sun comes up, and in a room with light leaking around the curtains that can be very early.

For bedrooms, the dry season is when blackout matters most. The sun rises in a clear sky with no monsoon cloud to soften it, and a gap of a few centimetres at the top or sides of a curtain throws a bright line across the room. Side channels on roller blinds, or curtains that overlap the frame and return to the wall, solve this.

Heavy, lined curtains also take some of the edge off outside noise, although they are no substitute for good windows. They soften sound reflecting around a hard-surfaced room more than they block sound coming in, which is still worth having in a tiled bedroom. For a bedroom facing a busy road, lined curtains that meet the floor and overlap at the centre make the most of this.

The dry months bring dust. Roads and gardens dry out, windows stay open for the breeze, and fine dust settles on sheers, pelmets and the tops of blinds. Pale sheers can turn grey within a few weeks, and dust held in fabric also attracts moisture once the air becomes humid again in May.

In a house that cannot take rooms out of service, the answer is routine rather than deep cleaning. A soft brush attachment on a vacuum, run over curtains and blinds each week, keeps most of the dust off. Leading edges, which hands touch every day, benefit from spot cleaning on changeover days in a let property.

Washable items such as sheers and cushion covers can be rotated if you hold a second set: one in use, one in the wash. In January and February they dry quickly, so a set can be washed and returned within a day. For properties that cannot spare a room out of service, that second set is the maintenance plan.

The busiest weeks of the year are also the best evidence. Guest comments, complaints about heat or light, the blind that jammed twice, the room where everyone closes the curtains at four o'clock — all of it is information for the next October, and it is easily forgotten by then.

A simple log kept through the season, noting the room, the date and the problem, turns scattered complaints into a specification. By March the pattern is usually clear: one or two rooms need solar control, one mechanism needs replacing, and the rest was fine. It needs nothing more than a notebook kept with the property's other paperwork, or a shared note on the caretaker's phone.

Some of that work can happen immediately after peak season, in March and April, when properties are quieter and the weather is still dry. The rest belongs in the monsoon planning, ready for installation after the rains. Splitting the list this way means the quick fixes are not held up by the larger decisions. Either way, the evidence gathered in peak season is what makes the next round of work accurate rather than guesswork.