If you’re looking to spice up your new house or add a little something to your home without completely renovating your entire living space — what about a skylight?
Skylights bring natural light into your home, reduce your dependency on artificial lighting, enabling you to save money and reduce your carbon footprint.
Whether you are looking to brighten up your kitchen, hallway, living room or loft conversion, you will need to choose the best skylight for your needs. Here are just a few of the considerations you will need to make before purchasing a skylight for your home.
The physical size of your skylight will have an impact on the illumination level and temperature of the room in which it’s installed, so choosing wisely will help you better control the level of light and heat coming into your home. Contrary to popular belief, bigger skylights are not necessarily better — when installed in a suitable position, a small skylight will be able to brighten your room with ease.
There are two main types of skylight: fixed and opening. A fixed skylight cannot be opened. An open or vented skylight on the other hand includes a switch that enables you to open your skylight electronically. Opening skylights are equipped with an electrically operated chain actuator, which is integrated into the up stand. Rain and wind sensors can also be included as optional extras. If you wish to improve ventilation, open skylights will enable you to let more air into a room but you may wish to consider having a screen fitted to prevent unwelcome insects from coming in.
If you wish to maximize daylight coming into your home, you will need to consider your skylight’s position. Skylights on north-facing roofs will provide you with fairly constant but cool illumination. Those on east-facing roofs will provide maximum light and heat gain in the morning, whilst those on west-facing roofs will provide this in the afternoon. Skylights on south-facing roofs will offer the greatest potential for desirable winter heat gain. However, they can occasionally generate unwanted heat gain during the summer months. The structure of your home will also have an impact on the positioning of your skylight. Wooden beams, electrical wiring and air ducts can prevent you from positioning your skylight in your chosen location so make sure you bear these obstacles in mind when choosing where to have them fitted.
Advances in skylight design and manufacturing have significantly reduced any issues which allow heat to escape from your home. This loss is measured by the term U-value, so the lower the U-value of your chosen skylight, the better the insulation it will provide.
