Anyone looking to bring more natural light into their home needs to know how to determine the right size tubular skylight for a room. The addition of the right sized unit for the room will deliver a steady and free source of light that will illuminate a living space with efficiency and style. There are many different things to consider before purchasing and installing one of these incredible Earth and energy saving tubular skylights, most importantly, the required size for the room. There are some considerations to be made before purchasing a kit or hiring someone to come to the home to install a tubular skylight. Knowing exactly what a tubular skylight is and how it functions, will help the consumer to make an informed and intelligent decision when it comes to this permanent addition to the home’s function and facade.
What are Tubular Skylights?
A tubular skylight is an eco-friendly way to bring natural light into a room via a hole in the roof of the structure. This allows natural sunlight to penetrate and fill the room below at no cost to the owner for electricity, according to This Old House. The light entering the roof area is introduced to a metal connecting tube that bounces the sunlight off of the walls and down into the room below. Sizes of these tubes can range from 10″ in diameter to 20″ in diameter. These tubes have rounded domes on the top and decorative covers on the interior. Once a homeowner knows how to determine the right size tubular skylight for a room, these skylights can be installed in any room of a house and can be adaptive to a variety different tastes and styles.
How Do Tubular Skylights Work?
A tubular skylight functions by capturing the natural direct rays of the sun inside of the tube from the roof of a structure, and bouncing them off of the walls of the tube and down into the room below. Having the curving surface of the tube allows for more sunlight to be reflected down the walls of the tube and finally released out into the room. When looking to figure out how to determine the right size tubular skylight for a room, it is important to consider the amount of light that will be required to adequately illuminate the area, and choose a tube with enough surface to deliver the right amount of diffused light.
What Materials are Used to Create These Tubular Skylights?
Because of the amount of different manufacturers, shapes, sizes, and functions, choosing a material for a tubular skylight may be difficult one. Many of the glasses that they utilize for this type of installation have a glazed surface to reflect the most of the damaging UV rays from entering the home. Glass components are normally created from a layered glass with a safety layer of plastic that is sandwiched between the panes of glass. Although this material is more expensive than other options, this creates a durable and highly efficient material for collecting the sun’s rays. Many of the tubes that are in use for skylights are equipped with special reflecting mirrors and highly developed grades of metal for maximum light reflection and room illumination. Plastics are a more cost effective alternative and many people wondering how to determine the right size tubular skylight for a room choose to use this material for their domes on their skylights. Unfortunately, plastics are relatively quick to scratch and are prone to dulling and turning yellow over time.
How To Determine The Right Size Tubular Skylight For a Room
With such a great number of options for tubular skylights, it is important to know the formula for choosing the right size tube for the area to be illuminated, according to the Department of Energy. A basic rule of thumb when figuring which size of tube to install for a skylight is to keep the size of the light under five percent of the total room’s floor space. This is for rooms with two or more windows. When considering a tubular skylight for rooms that have only one window or less, it is important to figure the size of the skylight based on a ratio of no more than 15% of the room’s total floor space.
Everyone is looking to save a dollar today, and a great way to do that is by installing tubular skylights in a home. Using the natural light of the sun instead of relying on electric power to illuminate dark rooms, is an eco-friendly and cost effective way to add light to any room in a home, garage, shed, or any other type of structure. All that is left for the eco-friendly person to do is to is to enjoy the free lighting. The convenience and savings that these tubes deliver will encourage homeowners to pass on this knowledge of how to determine the right size tubular skylight for a room to other green and eco-friendly enthusiasts, acquaintances, and friends.
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