Skylights Save Energy And Beautify Your House
Skylights are installed in the roof of the house to let the sunlight shine into the interior areas of the house. This saves the electricity that you use for daytime lighting in these areas.
Wall windows let in just a fifth of the sunlight that comes through a skylight of the same dimensions. That means you get a five-fold benefit of natural lighting and heating, which translates to a commensurate saving on your energy bill.
The interior suddenly appears to be more spacious and open. You can install skylights for any interior area, but the most popular areas nowadays are kitchens and living rooms. Bathrooms are also being given the skylight-treatment more and more these days. Having a skylight in the bathroom means increased privacy by obviating the need of a bathroom window. Bathing will be more pleasurable in the colder months, thanks to the warmth of the sunlight entering the bathroom.
Indoor plants are popular ways of giving the interior areas a bit of the outdoors. But the cost of providing artificial lighting for the plants is sometimes prohibitive. Skylights let you grow plants right inside the house at no cost at all!
If you're planning on installing, or already have, skylights in your house, you should also plan for skylight blinds. You don't want to let the sun's heat in during warm weather or in summer! That will be counter-productive, and will increase cooling costs. If blinds are too expensive, then you can go for tints that do the same job as blinds, the only difference being that the tints are fixed and cannot be manipulated at will like blinds.
You will have to take a few points into consideration when you're installing the skylights. One is the climate in your geographical area. The other is the facing (direction) of the skylight. The roof style is important too. Is the skylight installed in a flat roof or an angled one? These factors affect what is called the energy performance rating of the skylight.
The general agreement on computing the size of the skylight for lighting up a room is a maximum of 5% of the floor area for areas with a lot of windows, and a maximum of 15% for those areas which are served by few windows. Exceeding these norms reduces the energy efficiency of the skylight.
For optimum energy efficiency, it is recommended that you get the skylights installed by a professional contractor. The setting and sealing is crucial to the skylight's energy efficiency! A professional has the experience and expertise to the job right. They are the best persons to advise you on the size, type and location of the skylight to install according to the room being served. Of course you should check the credentials and references of the contractor before assigning the job to him.
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