Today’s homes value natural light for its beauty, energy savings, and mood-boosting sunlight. Skylights and Solar Tubes may brighten dark rooms in your home. Read on to learn more.
Skylights
Most people know skylights. Your roof’s acrylic, glass, or polycarbonate panels let in sunshine. Skylight “windows” are roof-framed and flashed to prevent leaks. Skylights range from 12 x 12-inch squares to 15% of the room’s square footage.
Skylight installation is more complicated and often requires skilled carpentry. Installation requires cutting rafters, thus neighboring rafters must be reinforced. Skylights cost more than solar tubes because they require more labor. Basic skylights cost roughly $1,500 and vary based on UV coatings, ventilation, shades, and installation.
Solar Tubes
Known as light tubes, sun tunnels, and tubular skylights, solar tubes are polycarbonate or acrylic domes mounted on your roof. The similarities cease there. As the solar tube dome captures sunlight, it reflects it down a sheet metal tube into the attic and through a ceiling diffusing lens. Solar tubes can exceed 10 inches.
Solar tubes are easier to install than skylights. Solar tubes usually take two hours to install. Solar tubes cost approximately half as much as skylights due to their ease of installation.
Most light comes from solar tubes. Skylight lets in 36% of light, whereas the tube lets in 99%. The dome shape on your home’s exterior captures light more efficiently.
Alternatives: Skylights vs. Solar Tubes
Solar tubes capture light and diffuse it into the residence, improving energy efficiency. Skylights gather three times the light of normal windows, but heat accumulation wastes electricity, especially in warmer areas. Solar tubes block dome UV radiation, unlike skylight filters. To protect skin, eyes, and home furnishings from UV rays, block them as much as possible.
Skylights and solar tubes face water condensation difficulties, but these can be solved. Home humidifiers can reduce skylight condensation. Solar tubes can be insulated to reduce condensation.
Traditional skylights may look better. From bright sunshine to starry night, skylights add atmosphere. Solar tubes aren’t noticeable, and they look like light fixtures within the home. Skylights or solar tubes depend on personal taste in aesthetics.
Solar tubes and skylights work in every temperature, but thick snow blocks their winter benefits. Glass is better than acrylic skylights in high heat or cold because acrylic can break. In hurricane-prone areas, polycarbonate skylights and solar tubes are preferred.
Choosing Skylights vs. Solar Tubes
Skylights provide natural light and ambiance to interior rooms. Solar tubes are an energy-efficient way to get sunlight into your home.
Elite Solar Lighting & Fans Is A Solar Tube Installer Located In Arizona
Elite Solar Lighting & Fans offers residential and commercial solar tube installation services throughout the entire united states, including Arizona, California, New Mexico, and more.
