Skylights
Skylights increase light and ventilation, make rooms more comfortable and bigger feeling, and offer an unusual view. Manufacturers have improved flashing kits and controls, making today's skylights more reliable. When they're well placed, few building products offer greater value to homeowners.
Tubular skylights are the industry's most recent innovation. Advantages like flexible placement and the elimination of framing or finishing steps make them ideal for renovation applications. Unlike conventional skylights, however, their benefits are lost once the sun goes down. Manufacturers have responded with light kits for after-dark illumination to increase versatility. Self-flashing domes and adjustable tubes make installation easier and less expensive than for a traditional skylight.
Skylights range from utilitarian to high-tech, and from strictly functional to solely decorative. However, in the ever-increasing effort to save clients money in energy costs, especially in such high-use applications as lighting, architects and designers are using skylights to bring daylight into their buildings. Skylights work especially well in older homes.
Skylights illuminate a dark room without taking up wall space, and the added light can make a small area look larger.
Today's skylights are much more than bubble-shaped domes – structures range from pyramids to flat planes, and include the latest window technology, such as high-performance glass.
Lighting accounts for 40 to 50% of the energy consumed in commercial and institutional buildings and 10 to 20% of energy used in industry, so by using natural light, businesses are saving money on energy costs.
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Standard skylights: A standard skylights consists of a self-flashing aluminium frame which is designed to fit onto any type of roof. The aluminium frame is powder coated or anodised for coastal conditions. Glazing is either 4 mm toughened glass or 6.38 mm laminated glass, and is available in clear or tinted glass in various shades. The barrel type standard skylight is glazed with acrylic and is available in various tinted shades. Ventilation can be fitted onto the base of the aluminium frame, either using a louvre type of ventilation, or a hinged type.
A guide to skylight selection:
| Your room: | Skylight size (mm) |
| Small kitchen/bath/scullery | 600 x 600 600 x 900 |
| Medium kitchen | 600 x 900 |
| Hallway/attic | 600 x 1200 |
| Large kitchen/bathroom | 600 x 1200 900 x 900 |
| Family room | 900 x 1200 |
| Large family room | 1200 x 1200 |
| En suite/walk-in wardobe | Skytube 320/450 diameter |
| Any small area | Skytube 320/450 diameter |