Monday, April 22, 2019

Where to Use Skylights in Your Home

Tunnel Skylights - Mares Dow

Spring has finally arrived and it's time to decide what home improvement project best prepares you to take in all that summer can offer. Before you look outward and contact retaining wall contractors to to terrace your backyard, consider the benefits of installing skylights in some strategic places throughout your home. Skylights can maximize all that summer sunshine while helping you to open up your rooms and increase energy savings.

Kitchens and Living Rooms

No matter the layout of your home, there are several rooms whose atmosphere and overall lighting can be improved with skylights. In particular, you can look to the rooms where most families spend the bulk of their time, such as kitchens and living rooms. These rooms tend to be hubs of activity and, with the addition of skylights, can be suffused with natural light. Not only is natural light known to enhance mood and provide vitamin D, it can reduce energy use from electricity in these often-occupied spaces. Considering how much time families typically spend in these spaces, installing skylights can add up to substantial energy savings.

Smaller Rooms

Other rooms that can benefit from skylights are smaller rooms, such as bathrooms or converted attics, that can feel more spacious when skylights are installed. Converted attics are ripe for skylights, which can dramatically update the space from a musty, too-close feel to a bright and airy atmosphere. Really any smaller room in your home can experience a similar transformation, even if their ceilings aren’t directly below the roof. In these situations, home remodeling contractorscan install tunnel skylights, which use mirrors and tubes to funnel light from an exterior surface to bring natural light into the room.

Breezy Rooms

In bathrooms, skylights not only provide privacy while letting in natural light, they also have the added benefit of increasing airflow and ventilating moisture. This feature of venting skylights can be helpful in other rooms of your house as well, no matter how high the ceilings, as there are several models of skylights that can be opened and closed with a remote. Some models even have a rain sensor and close automatically in the event of a precipitation. Increasing natural ventilation with skylights can also cut air-conditioning usage and costs and have the benefit of circulating fresh air.