A roof rehab is one of the perfect opportunities to add skylights to your home. A good set of skylights will let in a lot of natural light, reducing your use of artificial lighting during the day. Get energy-efficient skylights and you further improve your home’s overall energy efficiency. Depending on the skylights you choose, you can take advantage of passive heating to aid in keeping you warm, a feature ideal for homes in colder areas. As a bonus, you can also get a good view of the sky without having to step outside.
Considerations
A lot of the considerations you should keep in mind when choosing skylights is similar to what you would consider in windows, like:
- Orientation – Skylights facing south will receive a lot of sunlight while those oriented west will not be getting as much. As such, plan where you want your skylights to be facing depending on the amount of natural light and passive heating you’re looking to get.
- Multiple Panes – A double-paned skylight can provide up to 15% better thermal resistance than a single-paned one. This can easily add up to several hundred dollars worth of energy savings in the long run.
- Low-Emissivity Coating – Depending on your area’s climate, the right type of low-emissivity, or low-E, coating can further improve your skylight’s energy efficiency. This usually costs extra, but the additional savings you get from using coated skylights means the product will pay for itself down the line.
- Low-Conductivity Frames – Metal frames conduct a lot of heat fast so they’ll negatively affect your home’s energy efficiency by bringing in too much heat indoors. Avoid this by looking for skylights with insulated frames or those made of more energy-efficient materials.
Not sure if you can commit to a skylight?
Consider a solar tube instead. It goes by many other names–tubular skylight, sun tube, light tube, etc–but a solar tube is essentially a metal tube that captures sunlight at your roof to deliver daylight into your home. It’s between 10 and 14 inches in diameter and can provide brightness equivalent to three 100-watt bulbs for the smallest size.
In the next part, you’ll get to know one more roofing rehab project: attic insulation. Stay tuned to find out more about getting good attic insulation!
