06/08/2022
A skylight is a fantastic way to add light to your home in a unique and stylish way. But like anything, there can be some downsides if you don't do it right! So, what are the advantages and disadvantages of skylights?
Of course, being one of the leading skylight suppliers, we are biased! But we believe the advantages massively outweigh the disadvantages when it comes to skylights. The natural light that comes with a skylight is unmatched and can actually increase the value of your home. That's why they are so popular.
We take pride in consistently providing our customers with the best quality and honest advice. Therefore, it is just as important to talk about both the advantages and disadvantages of skylights.
Keep reading to find out what to look out for before making the final decision. Then, get in touch if you have any questions about the right skylight for your home!
Before diving into the advantages and disadvantages of skylights, let's briefly explain what a skylight is.
A skylight is a window added to your roof, commonly placed on the angle of the roof or in the middle of a flat roof. The beauty of skylights is that if you have the right budget, they can be designed to fit the uniqueness of your home.
A skylight is a great way to add light, space and character to your home just by simply adding a window. They are a great alternative to a standard window as they offer many more benefits.
Skylights come in all shapes and sizes and can be customisable to your home. Their main purpose is to admit light in a room; however, they can also act as a good ventilation system or aesthetic feature in your home.
Let's look at the benefits of skylights. There are so many we could mention, but we have narrowed it down to the top advantages based on what our customers have told us and our years of experience.
Starting with the most apparent advantage of skylights. The extra daylight it brings into your room.
Skylights can help brighten up areas of your home that don't usually get any light. This could be areas such as bathrooms or hallways. In our opinion, it elevates a space as well as bringing in additional light.
Studies also show that natural lights can improve your performance. So if you're working at home, this is a considerable benefit of skylights. In addition, it is a much better option than using a standard light fitting with artificial light.
When deciding where to place your skylight, you need to consider where you want the light the most. Deciding the size of your roof light can be difficult but can impact how much light is let into the room.
As well as extra daylight, you let more heat into your room, saving your energy bills. When looking at the advantages and disadvantages of skylights, this can either be a good thing or a bad thing. We will explore this in more detail below.
As skylights are placed on your home's roof, it adds a new dimension and a way to ventilate a space. If you opt for a skylight that opens up, it will increase the airflow in the room.
A massive advantage of skylights is they add an extra route for air to flow through on top of the windows in the room. Opening up the skylight allows fresh air to come from all angles, preventing overheating and freshening up your living space.
Additional airflow is perfect for rooms such as the bathroom or the kitchen where you may have smelly odours you want to get rid of!
Check out our electric opening rooflights to see how you can get ventilation benefits, even with rooflights at height! This can save you a lot of time in the summer months as you don't need tools or steps to open them manually.
In the current economic climate, we understand that the cost of electricity is through the roof (pardon the pun). Therefore, if you invest in a skylight, it can actually help reduce your energy bills by introducing solar heat.
A benefit of skylights is the ability for the sun to stream into the room. This naturally lights up the room and saves you money on artificial lighting. This can also be a lifesaver in colder months as the room will generally be warmer due to the double-glazed insulating properties of skylights.
It is a great advantage for your pocket and helps with your environmental impact. Putting on lights and having your heating on blast damages the planet, so the less you rely on them, the better off your carbon footprint.
We believe that skylights are more than just a window. When looking at the advantages and disadvantages of skylights, we know that they are an investment. However, you are not just investing in a window but in the aesthetic of your room.
Skylights look beautiful in a room and are almost like a picture. Our flat glass roof lights bring the outside inside, as you can see the sky like a moving picture from various standard roofs.
They can be placed to offer dramatic lighting in a room if you want to add a unique character to a space. The same way you would dress a room with mirrors or paintings, skylights have the same effect.
Some rooflights are fitted for purely aesthetic reasons. However, the size, angle and shape of the rooflight can drastically impact the look and feel of the room. That's why it's often best to speak to an expert who has experience transforming rooms using skylights.
Another advantage of skylights is their ability to open up a space. They have a unique ability to expand a room due to being placed within the roof.
Commonly, standard windows or doors are used to open up the space of a room. However, many overlook the roof, despite how open it is to sunlight compared to walls.
Skylights are great for those who don't have much room to work with and want to make it appear bigger and brighter. For example, It can transform a bathroom into your own little oasis by emulating the outdoor/indoor living style.
Something that is usually overlooked is the value skylights can add to your home. Unfortunately, when looking at the advantages and disadvantages of skylights, judgement can often be clouded by the cost.
However, the investment in skylights can help you in the long run. Not only will you benefit from all the points above, but it will also add value to your home.
As they are such a unique home feature, they are sought after. It would be a huge selling point if you were looking to buy a house and saw it had installed skylights.
Additionally, some people may not want one installed while living in the home (as construction can be stressful), so if you get one before selling your house, the convenience is a big seller for prospective buyers.
As we are looking at both advantages and disadvantages of skylights, we must make a balanced judgement. Every cosmetic change to your roof is going to have some challenges; therefore, we have listed the disadvantages of skylights.
Just as bright light and natural heat are benefits of a skylight, we recognise that the wrong amount can damage the space you've invested in improving.
As you can't control the weather, although we wish we could, it does mean in hotter months, rooms with skylights can overheat. This can risk you being unable to use the room or even want to use the room.
To try and help avoid this, we recommend keeping this in mind when deciding the skylight's placement, size and direction.
Our bespoke roof light service offers solar control and integrated blinds in our products. Therefore, this can help with climate control within the room. This can prevent the room from becoming too hot and too bright.
Similar to the above point, heat loss can be a disadvantage of skylights. Now, we know we said that it increases the heat in a room, and that is true. However, in the winter, they can let heat out.
Glass is excellent at conducting heat, allowing heat to not only come into the room but also escape the room. We don't see this as too much of a disadvantage of skylights as Rooflight Solutions' products don't have these issues
All of our roof lights come with double-glazed glass as standard. As well as that, all of our skylights come with warm edge spacers, made of an insulating plastic material that is a barrier to heat loss. This results in less heat loss and solving the problem of heat loss. Check out our fixed lantern roof lights to learn more.
We can't ignore the cleaning being a disadvantage of skylights. Cleaning windows, in general, can be hard enough, let alone ones located on the roof.
Another con of skylights is that it can be dangerous to clean your glass depending on where it is placed on your roof. For example, our flat roof skylight might be better to clean than angled skylights due to their better access.
However, we understand that cleaning the roof lights can be tricky and may be a disadvantage depending upon your property. Our best advice would be to consider that when purchasing a roof light.
It's also best to go with a high-quality supplier that offers self-cleaning glass, which reduces the need to manually clean yourself.
To install skylights, you will obviously need to cut a hole into your roof. If this is done by roofing contractors who don't have the right amount of experience, this can lead to leaking with all types of skylights.
While this is unlikely to happen when installed correctly and with high-quality skylights, it can happen, and many of our customers have come to us after dealing with other suppliers.
With UK weather, you can have a downfall of rain one minute and a heat wave the next. Therefore, you need to ensure that your skylight covers you for every circumstance.
To overcome this disadvantage of skylights, it's a good idea to invest in a high-quality skylight. It is not an area you should cut corners on, as it could be the difference between a leaking roof and a well-insulated roof.
Make sure you are in great hands by checking out our website and getting a free quote today from our team.
Let's not ignore the elephant in the room. A disadvantage of skylights can be the initial expense.
When assessing the advantages and disadvantages of skylights, there is no hiding that installing a standard window is often cheaper. Skylights will likely cost more to purchase and install.
However, as covered above, we believe a skylight is an investment. Yes, they have an initial cost and require some money to upkeep to ensure you get the most for your money. As long as you know that going into the installation process, then we don't see it as an issue.
Modern technology improves the quality of skylights to insulate your home and help you save money. However, we don't want to ignore the expense because, at the end of the day, it is an investment and a decision that should not be taken lightly.
We recommend that you do your research beforehand and contact a reliable and trustworthy company to ensure you are in the best hands.
A final disadvantage of skylights is the potential damage to your roof and possibly the interior. Unfortunately, these risks come with installing a skylight due to reconstructing the roof.
Roof damage can happen if the roof light is not installed correctly. We recommend you get your roof assessed against building regulations to ensure the structure can withstand a skylight. Check out the planning portal here to assess your building.
One overlooked disadvantage of a skylight is that it can damage your furniture. This can be through sun damage on the items in your room. However, most skylights these days come with a Low-E coating to control the heat and UV. Also, the addition of solar control glass can help to eliminate any damage to your other belongings.
There are pros and cons to skylights when it comes to installing them. However, invest in a good company that can install your skylight to the highest standard and you're extremely unlikely to have any problems.
One of our team would be happy to give you a free quote today to ensure you can overcome these disadvantages and get the rooflight your home deserves.
So now we have looked at all the advantages and disadvantages of skylights, it is clear that the benefits outweigh the negatives.
Skylights are a unique design element you can add to your home. To not only add a unique feature but also to increase space in the room and produce amazing natural light.
Everything has pros and cons, but we firmly believe you will never regret installing a skylight. However, before deciding which skylight you want or where you want your skylight placed, you need to find a trustworthy company you can rely on. That's where we come in.
We offer a bespoke roof light service that can cater to your exact needs. So get in touch with us today, and we can help create a design perfect for you.
