STORM PANELS are the least expensive and the most work. Corrugated panels bolt over each opening and get stored the rest of the year. If you can handle a ladder and you have a place to keep them, they protect just as well as anything else. The honest question is whether you will still be able to put them up in ten years, in a hurry, possibly alone. Plenty of people buy panels and end up never deploying them.
ACCORDION SHUTTERS stay mounted beside the opening and pull across on a track. Closing the house takes minutes, not a weekend, and nothing has to be stored or carried. They are visible when open, which some people mind, and the tracks need to stay clean to keep running smoothly.
ROLL-DOWN SHUTTERS live in a housing above the opening and come down with a crank or a motor. They are the least effort by a distance, they double as security and sun control, and they cost the most. Motorized units should have a manual override, because the storm that makes you want them is the storm that takes the power out.
IMPACT WINDOWS replace the window itself with laminated glass that holds together when struck. Nothing to deploy, ever. That is a genuine advantage for a second home, for anyone who travels, or for anyone who might not be there when it counts. It is the biggest job and the biggest cost because you are replacing windows, not adding to them.
THE RULE THAT DECIDES MOST OF IT: protection you have to deploy only counts if you are there and able to deploy it. Be honest about that, because it is the difference between protection and the idea of protection.
MIX AND MATCH IS NORMAL. Large sliding doors and hard to reach second floor windows are the ones people never get to, so those are where the automatic options earn their cost. Small easy ground floor windows can take panels. Nobody has to do the whole house one way.
- Panels cost least and demand the most from you when it counts
- Accordions close the house in minutes with nothing to store
- Roll-downs are the least effort and the most money; insist on a manual override
- Impact glass needs no deployment at all, which matters if you travel
- Protection you cannot deploy is not protection; mixing types per opening is normal
Questions people ask about shutters, panels or impact windows
Are impact windows better than shutters?
They protect comparably. The real difference is that impact glass needs nothing from you when a storm comes, while shutters and panels have to be closed or installed. If you travel or might not be home, that difference is the whole decision.
Are storm panels good enough?
They protect the opening as well as anything else. The question is whether you will reliably put them up, on a ladder, in a hurry, years from now. Many people buy them and never deploy them.
Do motorized roll-down shutters work in a power outage?
Only if they have a manual override, which is why you insist on one. The storm that makes you want them is the storm that takes the power out.
Do I have to protect every window the same way?
No, and most people should not. Put the easy automatic options on large sliders and hard to reach upstairs windows, and use panels on small ground floor openings you can actually get to.