Pros and Cons of Having Skylights

Your home is your castle. Your refuge. Your sanctuary. Yes, even your canvas. When you own your own home, it can be your ultimate form of self-expression, personalized to represent you unique style and personality. The opportunities for interesting design features are almost limitless, sometimes making it hard to decide exactly what features you want. However, if you love natural light, one of the most interesting and attractive home features you could choose is skylight.

A skylight can be an excellent enhancement to your home, brightening a dark kitchen, animating an unwelcome foyer, revitalizing a dated powder room or warming up a family room. Anyplace that can benefit from natural light has the potential to be enhanced with the installation of a skylight. Like any design feature, however, skylights have their advantages and disadvantages that you should be aware of. If you’re considering installing a skylight in your home, read on to learn about some of the pros and cons you should be aware of before making a decision.

Skylight Considerations

Flat roof skylights in residential homes have both pros and cons. As discussed, skylights are an excellent way to bring natural daylight in, which can reduce your electric bill by decreasing your need for daytime lighting. Additional daylight has also been said to enhance mood, especially on those cold, dreary winter days. Speaking of winter, in colder climates, flat roof skylights can actually increase the heat in your room due to thermal energy, which is another few dollars in your pocketbook when it comes to your winter heating costs.

Some of these pros, however, can also be cons. Yes, a few extra ambient degrees are welcome in Pittsburgh in January, but less so in Dallas in August. When determining the placement of your skylight you must consider all seasons. Try choosing a portion of your roof that might be shaded from summer afternoon sun, or installing your skylight on the north-facing portion of your roof.

Other big considerations when contemplating a skylight addition are insulation efficiency and leakage. If your skylight is not well insulated, or not installed properly, you can have flow around the seal, causing air leakage that can overtax your air conditioning and heating systems.

This can be from a number of reasons, but most often poor installation. When you’re installing a skylight, whether by yourself or with the help of a contractor, you need to make sure you install enough insulation to prevent the type of air leakage that can massively raise your energy bills

Installing A Skylight

Once you’ve decided a skylight is your must-have home improvement project of the season, ensure the skylight you choose has a high energy efficiency rating and you position it where it will not over heat or over brighten your room in the summer time. A reputable contractor and/or skylight vendor can help you in making the selection appropriate for your home.

When you’re looking for an interesting design feature that will add to both the attractiveness and utility of your home, one of your top choices is a skylight. Installing a skylight can supply your home with a ton of natural light that can improve the tone of almost any room while have big benefits for your energy bills.