Choosing A Skylight For Your Home
Many houses have an old, dark room where natural light is poor. It may be because the room is facing away from the sun, or it is shaded by other rooms or houses next door, or it may even be an internal room that doesn’t have any natural light at all.
If you want to generate natural light, there are few options. The most common solution to this is to add a lot of lighting which can be prohibitively expensive and a huge power waster. If you prefer natural light there are obvious problems. Short of changing the angle of the site (or just moving house), what can you do? An often overlooked but very practical solution is to install a skylight – as even the darkest of rooms will have a great source of natural overhead light: the sun.
Skylights are a wonderful way of opening up an internal room that would otherwise have no light, increasing the natural light in a slightly dark room, creating an interesting view, letting out condensation from a bathroom, or letting in fresh air. They can also be a great energy saver, as you are able to inject light into a room without putting in more electric lights.
There are a range of sizes, styles and shapes of skylights. Buying a fixed skylight is probably best for high windows in a room where they don’t have to open. You can choose a skylight that’s flat, or ones that are arched, domed or pyramidal. The latter three allow light from different angles to enter the room which is good if positioning the actual skylight is hard. Having a curved skylight also helps keep off precipitation and leaves, so you don’t have to worry about the maintenance required with a flat skylight.
Tubular skylights are good for hallways or places that do not have much space. They come with roof-mounted light or solar collectors, which is why they can work efficiently even if they are small. They take up minimal space and don’t change the look of the house too much, or lose much heat in winter.
It’s useful to have a skylight that can open in some rooms. Bedrooms, for example, benefit from the extra air flow, and bathrooms benefit from letting out condensation and fresh air in to stop mould and mildew.
Bathrooms are one of the areas that can benefit most from a skylight. As a great source of natural light, they can help you avoid over lighting (and so avoiding a garish bathroom). Natural light tends to be a soft and even light, as opposed electrical lighting which can be harsh. They are also a superb way of retaining the privacy that a bathroom needs, while increasing the feeling of space in the room. One consideration that’s especially important for this is that the skylight doesn’t leak – you don’t want precipitation to ruin all the good work you have done in letting condensation out.
When installing a skylight it’s recommended to talk through your options with an expert to ensure you are using the right type of skylight for your needs. Installed correctly, they will last many years and bring life and light into your home.