Tubular skylights are undoubtedly the best natural lighting option for numerous reasons. Three main reasons are, they use diffuser plates that offer natural light that’s easier on your eyes; their light doesn’t create glares on your TV or computer screen; and these lights are highly versatile and offer energy savings right from a short term. One of the direct benefits of tubular skylights is the quality of light from their natural lighting. The light isn’t harsh or bright to cause discomfort or squinting. Tubular skylights bounce the sunlight around their metal tubing directed to your home where the diffuser plate spreads the light throughout your room. The diffuser plate reduces the light intensity, as it enters your room, and therefore, glares are avoided. So, say bye-bye to fluorescent bulbs that have been the difficult alternative all this while, causing headaches, vision, squint and sleep problems. Even in their rich versatility, tubular skylights score much higher than any other types of skylights. One tubular light provides as much illumination as one 1200 watt electric bulb. So, no more glares in your bathroom mirror and no wishing you had light in your corner closets. Talking about costs, as there’s no energy bill for a skylight, and as tax credits are given for green-energy projects, you save up to $300 every year from each tubular skylight.

In Toronto, an average person would spend about $125 on electricity bill alone. With the depletion in global natural resources, such a humongous usage of energy is unacceptable and unreasonable. Television, refrigerator, heater etc. are all necessary today, so you cannot stop using these machines to save energy. However, a lot of money could be saved, if you can incorporate ‘daylighting’ within your habitat. Daylighting involves putting up windows and skylights within the house, in such a way that they filter and let in maximum amount of sunlight. This way, you can completely eradicate the use of lights during the daytime. A skylight or roof window could be installed at any place in the house. It could be installed in the living room, kitchen, dining room or bedroom. However, majority of house owners would love to install skylights in their living room. An important regulation, which a house owner must understand before installing a skylight, is its energy rating system. The skylights have varied ratings for different seasons; this is calculated on a scale of 1 to 5. Nevertheless, by installing a right skylight, you will be saving about 5-10% of your electricity bills, which accumulates to become a substantial saving per annum.

A skylight is truly an elegant and clever installation for any house. You can save energy consumption and add a bit of grace by adding these roof windows to your place. However, a leaky skylight is always a pain in the neck for the residents. A skylight can leak from small cracks, holes or due to improper fitting. Sometimes, even bad weather plays its part in creating a leaky skylight. Some old skylights may start to leak, because of a loose frame or top dome. The moisture or water dripping off the skylight will pose potential danger to the carpets, wallpapers, furniture or beds. Thus, you will end up with a huge hole in your pocket. All these skylight repairs can be handled well by a professional roofer, which means, the cost acquired in skylight repairs is considerably high. Nonetheless, you can always hope to find a reasonable roofer, who can fix your leaky skylights at an economical budget. A few house owners tend to hire a handyman to save on the heavy installation charges incurred by hiring a professional. This is a very bad move, as a handyman cannot provide the same finish as a skilled roofer. Therefore, the installation is vulnerable to all sorts of skylight repairs.

A skylight installer will always be available in case of an emergency or repair services. They provide a warranty of at least one year, so that the customer can take a sigh of relief when they face a problem. However, there is one thing, which no installer or manufacturer can give a guarantee against; and that is condensation. Technically, a skylight is subjected to varied temperatures and humid atmosphere. Therefore, there is always a good chance that moisture covers the skylight surface, creating a steamed look on the skylight. When this happens, the natural light will not be able to reach the inside of the house or office, as intended. Usually, this problem is self-checking, but sometimes, due to excessive condensation, the screen might not be able to check the problem on its own. Hence, the retaining fasteners and frame should be removed and the top dome is taken out for cleaning. A soft cotton cloth is more than sufficient to clean the dome; there is no need to employ any chemicals. Later, fix the top dome and place the frame and retaining fasteners, back in position. But, make sure that the retainer is not tightly trampled. There should be a little room for the moisture to escape, when condensation occurs in future.

Skylights are a means of beautifying your roof. They add colour to the house and make it look aesthetically complete. The only condition is that they need to be correctly installed. It helps to know the procedure for fixing a skylight properly. The first concern is the material, the most commonly used one being aluminium. After you buy bits of aluminium step flashing, a ten foot long right angle flashing and a rubber membrane roll, let the roll seal around a nail. The step flashing is in six sections that form ninety degree angles of 4 inches on each side. The right angled side forms a ninety degree hammer with the metal cutting snips for installing the flashing. Flashing needs to be done in steps and with intrinsic symmetry, which is the reason why the name step flashing has been ascribed to it. The process includes sticking the flashing to the bottom and the top of the flashlight, so that it overlaps a bit with the roof, and then seeing to it that the sides are taken care of in a balanced and visually enticing manner. Care is to be taken that the flashing on the sides extends up to the roof deck. It’s very easy to set it up, after a preliminary glance at the instructions for setting up. Flashings are the best way to get an aesthetic appeal, in a very easy way!