It sounds like it does the opposite of what I need. I need it to block the light emitting from inside to outside.
Yep, that was what I was suggesting, that mirror film is not an appropriate product for what you want it to do.
Are there any other tinting materials that will block interior lighting at night.
Yes, but at the cost of lower light transmission values.
example
Homes built on certain Florida beaches have to meet what's know as Turtle Code. Turtle Code limits indoor to outdoor light transmission to a maximum light level of 45% at night visible from the shoreline. Turtle code exists because hatchling sea turtles would see the light from beach homes and they would head toward the homes rather than heading to the water resulting in many thousands of hatchling sea turtle deaths over the years. Scientists discovered that as long as visible light transmittance from inside the homes was below 45%, the turtles wouldn't be attracted to it and they would follow moonlight out to sea as nature intended. So per turtle code, windows facing the water are required to have glass with light transmission values below 45%.
Somewhat like the Turtle code, you want to limit the light in your home from leaving through your windows to the outside at night, and while that's doable, and pretty simple, it does mean that your window glass will need to be darker in order to lower the visible light transmission.
To get a rough idea of what you will be looking for, a single sheet of clear glass transmits about 92% of available light, while a clear glass dual pane has a visible transmittance of about 82%. Adding LowE coatings to clear glass will drop light transmission from 80% using a single silver high solar gain product, down to 40% or lower using a tinted low solar heat gain, low solar glare product.
After market films are much the sameas adding a LowE coating in that films come in a variety of light transmission levels and depending on how much light you want to block there is probably a film that will work for you in that application.
I would suggest that turtle code 45% is a good place to start, so you might go to your local big box store and see if you can get small samples of different light transmission samples that you can look at to see which one might work best for you.
But again keeping in mind that nothing is without some cost and there ain't no free lunches, blocking the bright light means blocking low light too so using a coated or tinted film will affect how you see out at night as well.
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