Flat Roof Skylights:
A proven energy saver

Here, we’re going to take a look at flat roof skylights and how they can both save you money and help lower your footprint.

Natural, sustainable energy

The sun remains the Earth’s best source of energy, sending at 94 billion megawatts of power every single day. Fortunately, over the last few decades, we have become increasingly better at harnessing this unique source. Indeed, we’re now at the stage where using home-grown electricity is almost unnecessary given the technology available to us. What’s more, natural heat and light from the sun is much brighter and cleaner than any of our manufactured sources.

Natural sunlight is made up of two main components: direct light and diffused light, the latter of which you all know as daylight. The aim of flat roof skylights is to make use of day light rather than direct light: as anyone who’s spent time in a summer traffic jam will know, direct sunlight can be pretty uncomfortable!

How does this relate to skylights?

Skylights encourage an abundance of natural daylight into a room: a flood of light that naturally fills the whole space. This isn’t the case with traditional windows, simply because the vertical panes of glass don’t allow the light to reach across a room in the same way.

You’ve probably already guessed that this adjustment can be enough to make a huge difference in the amount of energy you use to power your electric lights. Indeed, the installation of rooflights could save as much as 50-70% on your electric bills.

What’s more, virtually all of the light allowed to filter through is daylight rather than direct sunlight (though, of course, the layout of your house may still allow some sunlight through at certain times of the day). This means that you can enjoy the brightest rooms possible, without having to worry about overheating.

The studies

You don’t have to take our word for any of this, of course.  For more information, you can head to the website for the National Association of Rooflight Manufacturers (NARM), who’ve carried out a number of studies and have whitepapers available here detailing the potential for energy saving through the use of skylights.

The Elmhurst Energy Study in particular detailed how a self-contained Homebase store benefitted from a substantial 29 per cent reduction in carbon emissions through improvement of the skylights: this compared very favourably with the only 11 per cent reduction achieved through changes to the lighting control systems and electric lights.

Get in touch

If you’d like to know more about how flat rooflights can save you money, give Sunsquare a call today on 01284 846588.