There are different types of skylights that can be opted for your house. They however come with differing material makeup, designs and added components. But before we get started, what really is a skylight? Well, it is a specially made type of a window that is built into the roof of a building to allow more natural light in. A skylight can also be built as part of a basic passive-heating strategy or for aesthetic purposes.

If your parent’s house has an expansive roof, then several skylights can be built into it to allow maximum natural light in. Unfortunately, skylights have poor insulation properties, meaning that apart from allowing as much light in as possible, they also allow a lot of heat to escape during the cold months, and too much heat to enter the house during the warm months of the year.

For this reason, it is important to start by considering how great the temperature shift is from season to season and how much direct sun the roof receives, prior to installing a skylight into it. A typical skylight allows around eight times as much natural light to enter a house as a comparably small sized window.

Here are some types of skylights that can be installed on the roof of your parent’s house.

1.    Ventilating skylights

Ventilating skylights can be opened to allow the passage of as much air as possible. They are ideal for kitchen and bathroom areas of a building, where they assist to keep the flow of air steady and relieve excess moisture. They can be controlled via a hand crack, by a remote controller or by an automatic sensor which tracks temperature changes inside the building.

2.    Fixed skylights

These are the types of skylights that can’t be opened. They are solely intended to allow as much light to pass into a building as possible.

3.    Tubular skylights

These are essentially very small versions of skylights which are intended mainly for small rooms, hallways, etc. Simply put, they are suitable for places that conventional skylights wouldn’t easily fit.

Skylights | Styles

There are quite a number of skylight styles in use today. These styles are mainly used for both fixed and ventilating skylights. Five of these are fairly common in small to medium sized houses. The others are suitable for large house types. The cost and difficulty of their installation depends greatly on the chosen style. Here are nine of the most common styles of skylights.

Suitable for small houses

•    Flat skylight style:  This is probably the most common style of skylights today. It consists of a rectangular or square piece of flat acrylic or glass and can either be ventilating or fixed.

•    Round skylight style: This type emerges from the roof as a half sphere bubble.

•    Polygon skylight style: The skylight peaks up out of the roof with several acrylic or glass polygons. This style is relatively more expensive than the simpler models; however, the end results are aesthetically more impressive.

•    Pyramid skylight style: This is a simple 4-triangle pyramid that juts out of the roof.

•    Dome skylight style: This type of a skylight is similar to a flat skylight, except that the glass rounds up past the surface of the roof.

Skylight styles associated with large buildings

1.    Hip ridge style of skylights

These are long rectangular types of skylights which peak up above the roof surface to a central ridge. They have a sloping triangular piece of glass on either short end.

2.    Ridge style of skylights

These are a simpler version of hip ridge style of skylights and have two long triangles sloping in towards one another and a number of straight triangles that close off in either end.

3.    Lean-to style of skylights

These are simple sloping skylights which rise from the roof of one story building and ends leaning against an upper wall of another.

4.    Barrel vault skylight

This style of skylights is a more complex form of lean-to skylights, in that they consist of several half-spheres that lean against an upper wall. They are often seen in large museums, arboretums and in different other such places.

Skylights | Material makeup

The two main materials that are used in skylight construction are acrylic and glass, both of which have own weaknesses and strengths. Both of them different glazing options and their selection is a matter of personal preferences. Apart from this, the materials have different looks and insulation factors. Another synthetic material that can also be used in skylight construction is Lexan. This material has the added benefit of high durability, making it more suitable for regions that experience powerful storms.

Skylight installation costs

Before getting started on these, note that the Insulation factor, durability and glazing are some of the main factors to take into consideration when purchasing a skylight for your house. The cost of purchasing and installing a standard skylight ranges from $1000 to $2000, with the more durable and technologically advanced models costing more than this. Peak types, styles and shapes also add significantly to the overall cost of installation. Installation of multiple modules of skylights significantly reduces the overall per unit cost.