Lighting: Benefits of Skylights

by Joan Whitman 03/28/2021



Photo by Tania Van den Berghen via Pixabay

When your kitchen or another part of your home could use a bit more light, consider adding skylights instead of lamps or light fixtures. Skylights can provide your home with some important benefits. As long as you have these lights properly installed, they can offer the following advantages for your home. 

 

Increase Natural Light

Installing skylights results in more natural lighting in your home. Exposure to natural light is associated with several benefits, including improved mood. This can be a major benefit during winter when it’s hard to get enough exposure to sunlight thanks to shorter days. Natural light from skylights can also create a more pleasant ambiance in your home, resulting in a more cheerful and calming environment. If you’re planning on selling your house, keep in mind that having plenty of natural light can improve your home’s appearance and make a great impression on home buyers during showings and open houses. 

 

Reduce Energy Usage

Skylights can help you save on the amount of energy your home normally uses. With skylights installed, you’ll gain solar heat from the sun during the winter months, which means you won’t have to run your heating system as much. This reduces wear and tear on your heating system and leads to lower heating bills. When it’s warm out, you can open your skylights to get cross-ventilation inside your home, which helps cool it off. Doing this can reduce your air conditioning bills during summer. 

 

Improve Ventilation

Skylights that open up provide your home with improved ventilation. Throughout the day, hot air rises and gathers near the top of a room. This can make rooms feel stuffy and uncomfortable, especially when it’s hot out. Skylights give you a way to release this hot air while also letting in fresh air from outside, resulting in better ventilation and improved indoor comfort. 

 

Make Rooms Feel Bigger

Having a skylight or two in your home can make the room they’re in seem more spacious. While this might not be a concern in a larger home, it can do wonders for smaller homes or older homes that don’t have an open floor plan. 

 

Offer Outdoor Views

Skylights in your ceiling give you a great way to enjoy views of sunny skies during the day and starry skies at night. Depending on where you live and where you have your skylights placed, you might also have good views of forests, mountains or other natural surroundings.