Save Money with Skylights

Simply put, Skylights are windows on the roof.  They come in many forms, some being roof lanterns, oculus, or just plain horizontal windows.  They are often made from Lambertian Diffusers, which is just the name given to a specific type of translucent acrylic.  You can save money on your daytime lighting and heating bills with skylights.  During the day (even when it is cloudy), when you look up at the daytime sky, it is quite light.  Even in winter it is still quite light outside.  During the winter months, the light provided by your windows alone will mean that you need not switch lights on between 10am and 3pm.  With skylights this time is extended both ways because they let in a lot more light than windows alone.

More Light

The amount of light entering the room means that if you install big enough Skylights, you will not need to keep bulbs burning through the day.  The light entering your house through your windows is mostly made up of light that has “bounced” and “bent” off from outside.  There is only a little bit of light that is coming direct from the sun.  This portion is the warm bit on your floor carpet near the window.  Skylights allow you to get the most from direct sunlight, meaning it fills up the room with more light and heat.

Turn On Your Houselights Later

A lot of the time it gets darker in your house at certain times of the day (this all depends on which side your window faces).  The direction that your room and window face will decide if the room will be lighter in the morning or evening.  With a skylight the light starts in the morning and continues on until the evening.  It will fill the room with light no matter what position the sun is at.  So for example, if you normally loose light in your bedroom after 1pm, then you will still have light past 1pm if you install a skylight. This means that you can keep your houselights off until later, ultimately saving you money.

Save Money on Heating

It sounds counter intuitive because the first thing you think of when you see windows on the roof is that your heating will go out of it.  It is true that most if not all forms of sky lighting are not as good at retaining heat as the under floor insulation in your attic, however with the skylight, you will not need to run your central heating as often.  Skylights work in a similar fashion to a greenhouse.  The skylight keeps the room bright and warm so that you need to put on your heating less.