Do Skylights Make the Room Hotter?
In this article, we take you through various points to consider when weighing whether a skylight will make your rooms hot.
01/10/2021
Progress in glass manufacturing made skylights more broadly available during the 19th-century industrial revolution. Skylights can do wonders for essentially any room in a house. But, you need to choose the best skylight to achieve your specific goals.
Whether in the office, living room, or kitchen, many homeowners always ask if a skylight can heat a home. This article takes you through various things to consider when weighing whether a skylight will make your rooms hot.
Does Skylight Make a Room Hot?
Skylights could result in too much heat inside a room when external temperatures rise. However, having the correct setup makes it easier to keep your house cool even when it’s boiling outside.
Also, a skylight makes a room hotter as natural light carries heat in the form of infrared radiation. Nonetheless, the amount of infrared moved into the house depends on the technology used in the skylight.
How to Assess Whether a Skylight Will Heat Your Room or Not
● Skylight Size
A 2 ft. x 4 ft. single-paned skylight, for example, can lead to your AC using 240 extra kilowatts hours of electricity annually due to heat coming via the skylight. It may look like a huge figure, but this translates to just 19 dollars extra in cooling bills annually, based on a rate of 8 cents per kWh.
Skylight permits more considerable heat loss in winter than does an outdated wall window. However, you can solve the problem by using high-grade skylights.
● The Size of Your Home
It is crucial to consider the size of your home and the number of skylights you want to fix. Not only is it costly to keep your building at a comfortable temperature through cooling and heating, but you also need to keep your house well-lit.
However, it would help if you avoided incandescent bulbs that create massive heat. Instead, install LED lights as they don’t emit much heat and are cool enough to touch.
With the ideal location and the right skylight, you can help reduce your heating, cooling, and lighting costs. Considering these options can save you a lot of headaches and give you the most efficiency for your home.
Preventing Your Skylight from Heating Your Home
● Positioning
It is critical to position your skylight well upon installation. Ensure your contractor places the skylight in a roof location that gets sufficient shade in summer. For example, vented skylights are a great option if you want to open and close them to let heat escape.
Also, preventing direct sunlight from going down the shaft with proper positioning will significantly decrease heat gain.
● Protective Coating and Glazing
A qualified expert providing skylight installation in Lubbock, TX will likely advise you to get a covering for your skylight to eradicate heat gain and upturn privacy. Various coatings diffuse the sunlight that comes into your house, leading to a pleasant soft light that gives your home a comfortable feel.
● Insulation
Ensure that your fitting contractor insulates your skylight correctly to prevent heat loss. Proper insulation and installation also guard your home against moisture through the skylight.
Roof Skylights Styles
A skylight's style refers to the layout of the glass and its shape. Always opt for a pleasing skylight style that will fit in with the general design of your building.
● Dome Skylight
These skylights project upwards in a dome shape. Most of the skylights are rectangular, but you can still find a rounded one too. You can use the cheapest dome skylights on a flat roof system.
● Polygon Skylights
The skylights come with unusual shapes such as triangles, octagons, and hexagons. Polygon skylights give a funny and beautiful look.
● Flat-Roof Skylights
The flat skylights trail your roof's pitch. Additionally, you can find deck-mounted skylights that don't interfere with the look of your roofline.
● Pyramid Skylights
The classic vaulted skylights come with a rectangular or square base and project up to form a pyramid shape. Pyramid skylights make an architectural statement but ordinarily capture minimal light than a basic skylight of similar size.
● Round Skylights
The skylights appear round from the house interiors but flat from outside. The skylights may be deck or curb-mounted to give a pleasing look.
● Straddle Skylights
Experts place the two-pitched roof skylights to straddle the top of the roof. Most straddle skylights are deck-mounted to offer a unique appearance.
Benefits of Skylights
Skylights come with other merits to homeowners apart from increasing the price of your home. Some of the benefits you are likely to experience after installing skylights in your home include the following.
1. Allowing Fresh Air and Better Ventilation
It is possible to open skylights to allow in the fresh air. This helps with cross ventilation in airless rooms, freshen up the atmosphere and cool down your house without turning on the air conditioner.
2. Add Natural Light to Your Space
The prime benefit of skylights is how they allow natural light into your building. Natural light improves moods and helps with performance in workplaces. Also, skylights heat your home with sunlight, hence saving on heating costs during chilly seasons.
3. Natural Views to a Room
Similar to having mirrors on your walls, skylights can make your rooms look larger and spacious. Also, you can get a view of the night sky or nature during the day.
Disadvantages of Skylights
Every beautifying change to your home has a potential demerit, and skylights are no exception. However, experts believe that many of the skylight's drawbacks come from poor decisions before installation. Other reasons include the following.
- ⮚ Picking the placement of your skylight without suitable consultation
- ⮚ Charges to replace or repair a bad installation
- ⮚ Doing it yourself
- ⮚ Hiring a service expert without experience in skylight fixing
- ⮚ Spending on poor quality equipment without solid warranties
Final Words
Skylights can bring necessary joyfulness to home by allowing more natural light to enter. However, you can end up paying the price later by overheating your building and making rooms uncomfortable and unusable. Also, always ensure that your installation expert correctly insulates your skylight for you to suffer less heat loss.