anyone know anything about skylights in houses?

Hi guys,

I am getting a new roof put on, hopefully around the 1st of the month.  While I'm at it, I'm considering putting in a couple of skylights to help in the poorly-lit spaces in my house.  Primarily a 2 x 4 foot rectangle one in the kitchen, and a secondary 14" round tube skylight in the corner of an unlit hallway.  Turns out they're a LOT cheaper than I had imagined, and while they've got the roof down to the wood is the best and only time to do it.

Anyone here know anything, or have any first-hand experience with skylights in houses? (everyone recommends the "Velux" brand).  My dad had two and they leaked no matter what he did.  Another friend has had several in his rec room for 15 years without having a single problem...

I just want to know what you'd do in my place, keeping in mind that my house is not particularly well-lit.

Wayne

[metalman]

I've built and sold my own brand of tubular skylights, pretty much know about every tubular skylight brand on the market....

The only reason to get a regular skylight is the "view". You only get a view from a large skylight. Its better to install a tubular skylight than a 2x4 skylight.

Regular skylights need to be mounted on a curb, Preferably double pane to prevent condensation, and heat loss. Regular skylights will add a lot of heat, be careful not to overload your a/c with a large south facing skylight. To cut down on heat you need tinting or a window shade, that blocks part of the light you put in the skylight to get.

There is a big difference in light output between brands of tubular skylights. The "flexable shaft" model does not work very well! Avoid! The ones that use an elbow and mount close to the roof don't work well on North facing roofs. Avoid any using a plastic roof flashing.

The tubular skylights don't add heat.

[steve30]

What are skylights?

I assume that as you mentioned velux they are something like roof windows?

[jkirk]

yea something like that. only iirc most don't open like a window it is just a piece of glass embedded in the roof to let light inside the house.

personally i havn't got any use for them since most every one i have seen leaked. they are fine when first put in but when they start leaking they are dang near impossible to stop.

[Hyperspeed]

I read some things last year about super-absorbers and super-reflectors.

Scientists had worked out a moon-crater style texture that could be painted on a surface that would absorb nearly all the light that hit it. The black that resulted was "quite beautiful" according to observers.

Then there was super-reflectors that worked like a cross between a heat-pipe and a fibre optic cable. They discussed installing these tubes into houses as they reflected nearly 100% of the light that entered them and wouldn't require you to put lights up in darker areas. I think this was mentioned alongside an article on Seasonal Affective Disorder caused by low light levels in winter.

There was also news last year about super acoustic-absorption materials that would dampen all noise (and also a machine to produce a matching frequency to neutralise noise!).

Maybe in the near future we'll have air-con, light-con and sound-con!

If however you don't want the hassle of a leaking skylight, condensation and the possibility of hang-gliders taking photos of you eating lunch - get an electronic ballast with daylight tubes. Helvar do dimmable electronic ballasts for 5/6' fittings with optional dimmer and reflectors. Sylvania do fantastic natural light tubes for graphics studios too.