The Benefits of Skylights In Your Home

Looking for a way to brighten up your home and add an eye-catching accent to interior spaces? Skylights could be the answer. A well-built skylight does more than add daylight to dark spaces. Read on to learn about how to choose the right skylight for your home and how skylights can improve your living space.

Choosing a Skylight

There are many different types of skylights available today in all kinds of sizes and configurations. Depending on your needs, however, you’ll mostly see a few popular varieties:

• Fixed skylights are the simplest option for a home skylight. A fixed skylight cannot be opened – it simply adds light and visual appeal to your home’s interior.
• Vented skylights are extremely popular with homeowners. They look similar to fixed skylights, but they can open on one end to improve airflow and release trapped heat. Many vented skylights use solar-powered motors for energy efficiency and to avoid adding wiring to your home.
• Sun Tunnels are small, round skylights that use reflective tubing to “tunnel” sunlight into interior spaces in your home.
• Roof windows are skylights that can be fully opened to provide emergency escape routes. They are generally only used in lofted bedrooms (such as on top of a garage).

In addition to the different skylight types, you’ll also need to choose between a deck-mounted or curb-mounted skylight.

Deck-mounted skylights are mounted in the roof deck itself. They are often quicker to install than curb-mounted skylights, but they only come in certain sizes and might not fit every roof opening.

Curb-mounted skylights, on the other hand, require the contractor to build a wooden frame, or “curb,” above the roofline to mount the skylight to. Curb-mounted skylights can be installed on a wider variety of roof types – even flat roofs can use curb-mounted lights. Curb-mounted skylights also generally feature a larger glass surface area than deck-mounted skylights do.

Skylight Benefits

Skylights Bring In Natural Light

One of the biggest benefits of skylights is also the easiest to see. Skylights bring natural sunlight into your home, even into areas far from windows or doors.

Natural light has many benefits, from providing you with much-needed Vitamin D to improving your mood and concentration. In other words, opening up your home to more sunlight won’t just make your home brighter. It could make your mind brighter as well.

Skylights Improve Energy Efficiency

If you’re concerned about your carbon footprint, a skylight can be a great way to reduce your home’s energy consumption. A well-designed skylight or sun tunnel can capture the sun’s rays throughout the day, illuminating a room without using any power at all. Plus, many skylights come with built-in blinds and shades so you can control the light level to your preference. Some skylights are even solar-powered, so you can operate the blinds and vents without connecting to your power lines.

Modern skylights also help reduce thermal transfer with improved air barriers between panes and UV-reflective coatings on the exterior. Even the skylight blinds help create a thermal barrier that keeps temperatures inside your home where you want them.

Skylights Improve Home Airflow

Another benefit of skylights is they improve the ventilation and airflow in your house without relying on energy-inefficient air conditioning units or bulky fans. Opening up your skylight allows outside air in just like a window does. And because they’re positioned higher, they’re excellent at removing smoke from a kitchen, steam from a bathroom, or stale air from any room in the house.

Skylights also help keep your home cooler when the weather is hot. By opening up your skylight on hot days, you create a chimney effect that draws warm air out of the house. Cooler air is then pulled in from below to replace it, keeping your indoor temperatures low without running the A/C.

Skylights are Privacy-Friendly

In cities and suburbs, it’s common for homes to be built closer and closer together. This can make it difficult to get enough natural light through the windows. It can also create difficulties with balancing the need for light with the need for privacy – especially in the bedroom or bathroom.

Skylights are a perfect solution to this problem. By letting natural light in through the roof, a skylight can brighten up any space and create a pleasing atmosphere without compromising privacy. You can install blinds on your skylights for improved privacy or use sun tunnels to bring in sunlight indirectly.

Start Your Skylight Project Today

Ready to learn more about our skylights and find the right skylight for your home? Contact us today, and we’ll give you all the information you need for your skylight project.