PSA: Focused Light From Mirrors Can Scorch Upvc Window Frames

We had a customer visit our showroom yesterday to report a scorched Upvc window frame.

It turns out they had a convex makeup mirror standing near a bedroom Upvc Window. What we believed happened was the sun had reflected off the mirror, magnifying the suns rays and creating a focused beam of light on the window frame, causing it to seriously scorch the frame.

We admit this is quite an unusual thing to hear of, however it’s not the first time Gardinia has heard of this happening during our 35 years of business.

The placement of the mirror and location of the sun in the sky would have to be just so for this to have a chance of happening, however the occurrence did make the customer feel a bit uneasy. The customer commented things could have been a lot worse if the sun had reflected from the mirror on to something which was more likely to burn, such as the curtains.

I decided to do a bit more research in to this phenomenon and found a page on the East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service website. This page talked about a fire which had been caused by focused light from a vanity mirror.

East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service stated: “In the evening, morning and during the winter, when the sun is lower on the horizon, the shallower angle at which the sun’s rays hit the earth means that it is particularly important to be aware of objects, such as magnifying vanity mirrors and glass ornaments, which may be left exposed to direct sunlight.

Most commonly this is because they are placed on top of shelves or drawers which are next to a window.”

This re enforced what Gardinia suspected had happened. With that in mind I would advise you be careful about leaving mirrors and magnifying glasses near a window, no matter how unlikely you perceive this will actually happen.

I have learned something myself here, it’s not something I’d ever heard of happening in my 7 and a half years hear at Gardinia, however some of my colleagues who have been here a good 30 years recall hearing a couple of similar stories over the years.