The Builder In You

Skylights let natural light stream into your home, bringing warmth and a feeling of spaciousness. When properly selected and used, they can reduce your need for electric lighting and minimize your heating and cooling costs.

Skylights can provide up to 30% more natural light than vertical windows while making a small space seem bigger.

A skylight is like a window which has been placed in your roof.  It has a frame specially designed to withstand rain and prevent leakage from rain and snow. To maximize a skylight’s use of natural light to illuminate a room or its passive solar heating potential, you will want to take into consideration how a skylight is positioned.

Facing north, your skylight will provide fairly constant illumination, but will not provide a lot of heat.

Facing east, it will provide the maximum amount of light and solar heat gain in the morning.

Facing west, your skylight provides afternoon sunlight as well as heat gain.

A skylight facing south provides the greatest potential for winter passive solar heat gain than any other location, but will often allow unwanted heat gain in the summer.  This heat gain can be minimized installing your south-facing skylight in the shade of deciduous trees or adding a moving window covering.

Skylights come in all shapes and sizes. Its size greatly affects the illumination level and temperature of the space below.

As a rule of thumb, the size of a skylight should never be more than 5% of the floor area in rooms with many windows; and no more than 15% of the room’s total floor area for spaces with few windows. Dept. of Energy.

Glazing

Like windows, skylight manufacturers use glazing to improve their energy efficiency.  The glazing comes in three different forms.

Plastic glazing – This type of glazing is usually inexpensive and less likely to break than other glazing materials.  However, these surfaces scratch easily and can become brittle and discolored.

Glass glazing – This is found in the more expensive skylights.  It is more durable than plastic and does not discolor.  All glass used for skylights must be made of “safety glazing,” a generic term for both tempered and laminated glass. Tempered glass is the most impact resistant. Laminated glass is fabricated with a thin layer of plastic embedded near the center of the glass. Both types keep the glass from breaking into large, sharp pieces. Skylights are often made with a tempered glass on the exterior side and a laminated pane on the interior side. This arrangement gives maximum impact resistance while protecting occupants from falling shards of glass.

Solar heat control glazing – Manufacturers use various glazing methods to reduce the impact of summer time solar heat gains and winter time heat losses.  These come in the form of heat-absorbing tints, double and tripled paned skylights and low-emissivity coatings.

Slope

When your window professional installs your skylight, one of the factors they will take into consideration is the slope.  The slope, or tilt of the skylight, affects the amount of solar heat gain.  A low slope on your skylight admits more solar heat in the summer and less in the winter, which is the opposite of the effect you are trying to achieve.

As a rule of thumb, you want to achieve a slope equal to your geographical latitude plus 5 to 15 degrees. For example, the optimum slope for a south-facing skylight in Columbus, Ohio, at 40º North latitude, is 45º to 55º.

Every skylight has a “shaft” which governs how much light is admitted into the room below.  If all four sides are flared, then the light is spread over a wide area.  If your skylight has a shaft with perpendicular sides, the light is focused straight below.  If your skylight’s shaft is flared on only one or two sides, then the light is sprayed in the flared direction.

Ventilation

If you wish, you can have a skylight which also provides ventilation as well as light to your room. This allows you to release the hot air which collects at your ceiling.  Your ventilating skylight can be operated by one of three ways:

Manual skylight controls – These are opened by your use of an extended rod to manually crank the skylight open.  These are designed for ceilings of less than 15 feet.

Electronic skylight controls – A simpler model of this type of control is wired to a wall mounted switch which opens and closes the skylight.  More complex models are controlled by a special wall console of a wireless remote control.

Automatic operating controls – With this type of control, integrated heat sensors trigger the skylight to open when the interior heat reaches a preset temperature.  Exterior sensors automatically close the unit when they sense moisture.

Tubular skylights

An alternative to the conventional skylight, which looks like a window in your roof, is the tubular skylight.  The tubular skylight is a roof-mounted dome which collects natural light and delivers it to the room below.  It is less expensive than the conventional skylight because it is designed to fit between roof and ceiling framing, eliminating the need for structural modifications.  You will commonly see these used in bathrooms, hallways and closets, but they can be used in any room of your house.

The average tubular skylight ranges in size from 10 – 21 inches in diameter, which lights a 100-600 square foot interior space.

Skylights of any type transform a room by adding warmth and depth while bringing out the natural beauty of your home and its surroundings.  When planning your new home or the remodel of your current one, take some time to consider skylights as a beautiful enhancement that also provide comfort to you and your family while conserving the energy we all share.

Sunrooms are a wonderful addition to your home.  They bring the beauty of nature and sunlight into your home while keeping out the cold, and the heat and bugs. The reasons vary for either adding a sunroom to your existing home, or to including it in the plans for the construction of your new dream home.  For some, it is a way to add more space for their family and entertaining.  While for others, a sunroom allows them to enjoy the beauty of their gardens all year round, no matter the weather, keeping the temperature and humidity constant.  A sunroom also adds visible light to your home.  Traditionally, sunrooms have been used as a family room or dining room space but, in recent years, that has been expanded to include kitchens, dens, bedrooms and even bathrooms or spas.

One of the things to consider when planning a sunroom is the location. Your sunroom should be facing south with a roof and walls of glass to capitalize on as much sun and heat as possible.

If you live in a climate where there is a lot of snow, it can certainly affect the weight that the roof can hold.  Talk with your architect, designer or window professional to determine whether a glass roof is suitable for your area.

While a sunroom is primarily a glass constructed room, they come in many shapes and sizes as well as are built with different types of materials. While a sunroom can come in any size, based on your site and budget, there are five (5) basic types or styles of sunrooms.

Straight style sunroom – This design has straight sides and a flat roof.  The windows are all the same size and the roof is made of either glass or a cloudy material which prevents you from achieving the full effects of the sun.

Cathedral style sunroom - This sunroom has a vaulted roof which makes it look larger than it really is.  This type of roof provides a better means for the rain and snow to run off that the traditional style.  A Cathedral sunroom usually features a peak wall that will let in light and extend the outdoor view, while giving the room and aerie feeling

California style sunroom - This style has a roof that has different heights, giving it a split level effect.  One half of the roof angles up and is joined by the second section, but at not such a sharp angle.  The style brings in the sun while making the room unique.

Solarium style sunroom – This style has both the walls and roof in glass, with the roof curved giving you a beautiful view of the sky at night and better lighting during the day.

Conservatory style sunroom – This style is reminiscent of a vintage look from Edwardian or Victorian times.  While they come in different shapes, the conservatory sunroom has a peaked roof made of glass and the walls are frequently rounded in shape with decorative touches for a more classical architectural style.

Your sunroom could be framed in aluminum, vinyl or wood.  While aluminum is the most economical to construct, it will not insulate as well as vinyl or wood.  Wood is the most expensive framing material for your sunroom, both to construct and maintain, but looks wonderful with other natural materials found in sunrooms such as rattan and wicker.

Glass or Glazing

All the glass in your home is referred to as “Glazing”. This includes the glass in windows, sliding doors, French doors, skylights, as well as the glass in your sunroom. The methods (both cosmetic and structural) used to secure glazing in place, are called “Glazing Systems”.
Two of the most important decisions you will make when adding a sunroom to your home, will be selecting the glass and choosing the glazing system. It is extremely important to the longevity of the room, that the glass and glazing system compliment each other. The glazing system is an important component, because it not only anchors the glazing to the structure, but usually provides the only protection against weather (water, air, dirt) penetration at this critical point. Additionally, some glazing units can suffer irreparable damage if installed incorrectly, exposing the edge seals continuously to UV radiation and water.
The two most common types of glazing systems found in sunroom construction fall into two general categories: “Weep” (or “Wet”) Systems and “Dry” Systems. The primary difference between the two is that the “Weep” System assumes that a certain amount of water will get past the outer seal and provides a method for that water to flow back outside the structure. In contrast, the Dry System uses extra precaution to prevent water from getting past its outer seal. Both types have advantages and disadvantages, depending on their applications. The main thing to remember is to choose a glazing system that is compatible with your selected glazing, or glass.

There are many options for the glazing, or glass, in your sunroom walls and roof.  You want the glass to filter the sunlight as it comes into the room, creating a soft appearance, not stark white.  The glazing comes in many types.

Low emissivity glass – Also referred to as low-E glass, this glass has an imperceptibly thin metallic film which is applied to one of the glass surfaces, or is suspended in between the panes.  This lets light in, but prevents some solar rays from being transmitted into your home.  This keeps your sunroom cooler on a hot day by not letting the heat in, and prevents the heat from escaping on a cold day.  The coatings also block ultraviolet rays, reducing the fading of floors, floor coverings, drapes and upholstery.

Tinted glass – Using a bronze or gray cast, tinted glass cuts the glare and heat from the sun, but only slightly reduces the amount of light let into your sunroom.

Double or triple glazed – This insulating glazing typically has two or three panes of glass sealed together in one section.  Between these panes either air or argon gas is trapped to act as an insulator.

Ventilation

With a sunroom, you will need airflow to maintain a reasonable internal temperature. Ventilation is designed to move air through your sunroom while keeping it cool and refreshing.  To ventilate your sunroom, you can have windows that open or install vents or ceiling fans, but best solution would be to install exhaust fans to blow the heat out. This will give you more control over the temperature in your sunroom.

A sunroom is a wonderful enhancement to your home. It will provide you and your family with a comfortable place to relax and enjoy the beauty of the outdoors throughout the year.

Skylights let natural light stream into your home, bringing warmth and a feeling of spaciousness. When properly selected and used, they can reduce your need for electric lighting and minimize your heating and cooling costs. There are also health benefits to this wonderful sunlight that shines on us.  

If you lack sufficient sunlight on your skin, you will suffer health effects. That’s because the human body was designed to be exposed to sunlight on a frequent basis. We evolved, after all, under the natural sun, not under fluorescent lighting. Our environment was one with plentiful sunlight. (more…)

When looking at one of these windows, doors and skylights, whether you are replacing old ones in your current home or buying ones for your new home, there are some factors you will want to take into consideration. These are called fenestration factors.

According to Wikipedia, fenestration is defined as, “Products that fill openings in a building envelope, such as windows, doors, skylights, curtain walls, etc., which are designed to permit the passage of air, light, vehicles, or people.” (more…)

There are two basic components to a window, the glass and the frame surrounding the glass.

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A window performs many functions. It brings light into a room, aids in heating, cooling and ventilating the room. It can be an architectural focal point as well as a means of emergency escape. These functions are found to differing degrees in all 12 types of windows on the market today. (more…)