TOP Essence Screen Fabric
30 colourways, solar screen, 1%, 3% and 5% openness, 300 cm roll, fire listed. TOP Window Covering fabric, made into roller shades in our Fort Lauderdale workroom and installed from Miami to Palm Beach.
A fire-listed solar screen at 1%, 3% and 5% for hotel, office and condo glass
Essence Screen is the flame-retardant solar screen from TOP Window Covering that comes at three openness factors on one datasheet: 1%, 3% and 5%, with the same ten colours at each, 30 colourways in all. The cloth is 30% polyester and 70% PVC, the three weaves run 0.55 to 0.69 mm thick and 420 to 500 g/m2, and the rolls are 200 and 300 cm wide. At the window it reads as a fine, even mesh, with the view behind it softened rather than lost. It is a contract fabric first, for hotels, condo common areas and offices, and it sits just as comfortably in a house.
The openness decides the job and the colour decides how it behaves. We put 1% on hard west and south-west glass and in any room where a television or a monitor faces the window, 3% as the default on the water, and 5% in view rooms under a terrace or behind filtered sun; our openness guide shows what each does to the view. Colour moves the figures more than openness does. Black at 1% passes 0.3% of the visible light and gives the sharpest view out, but absorbs 96.1% of the sun's energy; White at 1% reflects 73.4% of it and passes 11.1%, a brighter, hazier panel.
What Essence Screen does on your glass, and what it does not
Best use
Hotel guest rooms and lobbies, office floors, condo clubrooms and corridors, and any house that wants one screen on every window. Split the colour by heat rather than taste: White or Ice White on unshaded west and south glass, White/Gray or Light Gray where the view is the point, Black only on shaded glass or where the outlook must be as crisp as possible. For a whole hotel, we would start at White/Gray, 3%.
Privacy
By day the pale colours at 1% hide the room best, because a bright outside and a dimmer inside leave little to read through a light weave; Black at 5% hides the least. After dark the order collapses: with the lights on, every openness and every colour shows the room to the street. A guest room or a bedroom needs a blackout behind it on a dual roller.
Glare control
For a monitor or a television, read the low figures: Gray, Black/Brown, Black/Gray and Black at 1% pass 2% of the visible light or less, and TOP marks the fabric suitable for workstations. The whites at 3% and 5% pass 15.2% to 18.6% and turn the window into a bright panel that washes out a screen. A low sun in line with the window still shows through as a disc at any openness.
Limitations
It does not darken a room and gives no privacy at night, so it is never the whole answer for a bedroom or a guest room. Black reflects no more than 3.5% of the solar energy at any openness, so on unshaded west glass the heat builds up in the cloth. TOP's composition is 70% PVC, which rules it out on a no-vinyl brief. For sleep, the answer is a blackout, not a tighter screen.
Essence Screen
10 colours, 30 colourways. Solar screen, 1%, 3% and 5% openness; 200 and 300 cm (78.7 and 118 in) roll.
Colourways
1%3%5%
1%3%5%
1%3%5%
1%3%5%
1%3%5%
1%3%5%
1%3%5%
1%3%5%
1%3%5%
1%3%5%
TOP pictures the 5% colours with its 3% swatches; the colour is the same, the weave is more open. Swatch pictures and room photos: TOP Window Covering. Screens and monitors shift colour: judge on the sample.
Essence Screen in TOP's room photos
TOP's own photography of the fabric on a window, to show the colour and the weave. These are not Exotic Shades installations.
Every Essence Screen colourway, with TOP's published figures
Tv = visible light transmitted, Ts = solar energy transmitted, Rs = solar energy reflected, As = solar energy absorbed, Tuv = UV transmitted, in percent for the fabric alone, as published on TOP's datasheet; a dash means TOP publishes no figure for that colour. We bring TOP samples of the colours you shortlist to the consultation.
Where Essence Screen works here
Essence Screen lets one building carry one screen. On a hotel or a condo tower we would run 1% on the west elevations, 3% on the ocean or Intracoastal side and 5% under the balconies, all in one colour, so the building shows one face to the street. The datasheet lists NFPA 701, California Title 19, CAN/ULC-S109, EN 13773 and DIN 4102 B1, and NFPA 701 is the listing that matters wherever a fire marshal reviews the window treatments.
Fashion Screen 3% is the same 30% polyester and 70% PVC at a single openness, with twelve colours that stop short of white and two more fire listings, BS 5867 Part 2 and Classe 1 (Italy).
Essence Screen: frequently asked
Which colour gives the clearest view of the water?
The dark end of the card. Black, Black/Brown and Black/Gray pass 0.3% to 0.6% of the visible light at 1%, and a dark weave scatters the least light back at you, so the horizon stays sharp. They also reflect single figures of the sun's energy and hold most of the rest in the cloth. White/Gray is the compromise we would show first: at 1% it passes 5.2% of the light and still reflects 53.6%.
Can I mix openness factors in one room?
Yes, and that is the advantage of one colour card at three openness factors. A corner living room can take 1% on the west wall and 3% facing the water in the same colour. Up close the tighter weave looks slightly darker from inside, because it passes less light; from across the room and from the street the shades read as a set.
Can it go in a bathroom or a pool cabana?
Yes. TOP rates Essence Screen suitable for humid environments, lists an antimicrobial finish tested to ASTM E2149 and fungal resistance to ASTM G21-15, and gives a damp cloth as the care instruction. The limit in a bathroom is privacy, not moisture: like any solar screen, it shows the room once the lights are on and it is dark outside.
How wide can a roller shade in TOP Essence Screen be?
TOP makes Essence Screen in rolls 200 and 300 cm (78.7 and 118 in). The roll width is the widest single piece we can cut, so one roller shade can be made a little under 118 inches wide. Wider openings get two roller shades side by side, set to move together, or a split placed where a mullion hides it. We confirm the exact limit for the operating system when we measure.
Which shades can be made in Essence Screen?
Essence Screen is a roller shade fabric. We buy it from TOP Window Covering by the roll and make the shades ourselves in our Fort Lauderdale workroom: cut square, finished with a weighted hem bar and fitted to a Lutron, Somfy or Crestron motor or a manual chain, then installed by our own team from Miami to Palm Beach.
Is Essence Screen flame retardant?
TOP's datasheet for Essence Screen lists NFPA 701, California Title 19, CAN/ULC-S109, EN 13773, DIN 4102 B1. For a hotel, a condo common area or an office, ask us for the datasheet with your quote: the building's reviewer or the fire marshal will want the listing in writing.
Can I see Essence Screen samples before ordering?
Yes. Shortlist the colours here and we bring TOP samples of them to the in-home consultation, so you can hold them against your own glass in your own light. Our Fort Lauderdale workroom (4539 Powerline Rd, by appointment) and Miami Beach showroom (500 South Pointe Dr #150) have motorized shades running if you want to see one move.
Compare Essence Screen with
D-Screen 5%
A 5% screen whose dark colours still reflect heat, for shaded offices and lobbies
Fashion Screen 3%
A 3% screen that holds glare down in every colour, for offices, lobbies and media walls
Finesse Screen 3%
A thin, light 3% screen for wide windows and shallow pockets
C-Screen Linen 5%
A 5% fire-listed screen with 16% linen, for shaded rooms and softer interiors
Ancona FR
A thin flame-retardant light-filtering fabric for bright, private daytime rooms
Orient FR
A PVC-free, fire-listed light-filtering fabric that blocks nearly all UV
TOP Essence Screen roller shades in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Boca Raton & Palm Beach
We buy Essence Screen from TOP Window Covering, make the roller shades in our Fort Lauderdale workroom and install them with our own team from Miami to Palm Beach. Both showrooms, 4539 Powerline Rd in Fort Lauderdale (by appointment) and 500 South Pointe Dr #150 in Miami Beach, have motorized shades running so you can see how a shade moves.
See Essence Screen in your own light
Book a complimentary in-home consultation. Shortlist the colours you like and we bring the TOP samples, demo motors, and honest answers about light, privacy and what your windows need.