What’s the best way to brighten a house? Add more natural light. It’s the obvious answer, but it isn’t always easy to do. That’s why many people turn to energy-efficient lighting, and one of the most common choices is a skylight.
You know all of that, but did you know that there are vented skylights? You can have a skylight that opens and lets air through. It can really transform how you think about comfort in your house and make things much more efficient and pleasant. When you learn about vented skylights, you might find that they represent the perfect way to better your home.
What Constitutes a Vented Skylight?
In this case, it’s all in the name. A vented skylight can open up to let air flow through it (like a window). Since the skylight is built into the roof, it is typically letting hot air out of the attic. This is as opposed to a fixed skylight that does not allow any airflow. You can already imagine some of the pros and cons, but let’s get a little deeper into the details.
Pros of Vented Skylights
Let’s start with ventilation. It’s the primary reason to get this type of skylight, but it does a lot more than just let out a little hot air in the attic. If you open the skylight and a window or two at the ground level, you’ll create a gentle, natural air current through the house. The hot air in the home will naturally rise. The open windows at ground level prevent any pressure differentials that would stifle airflow, and the movement of hot air naturally pushes its way out of the vented skylight. None of this requires a fan or an air compressor. You get natural, active cooling in the home. It is incredibly efficient for lowering cooling costs.
Airflow provides another benefit. It also helps with handling built-up moisture. In humid climates, houses can hold a lot of moisture, particularly in attics. Trapped moisture ultimately causes mold, and that can include the dreaded black mold. Good ventilation is one of the best weapons for preventing this problem. Vented skylights help with moisture control, and they can go a long way toward preventing mold buildup in your attic and throughout your house.
In addition, the vented skylight still does its primary function. It allows natural light into the home. This further saves money on utility bills, and it makes the house feel fresh and bright, which is generally good for mood and mental health.
Cons of Vented Skylights
There are downsides to using vented skylights though, and the first is convenience. You have to operate the skylight to get any of those advantages. Sure, you can invest in an automatic skylight, but it’s going to be massively more expensive — and sometimes hard to find. If you keep things simple, you have to go all the way up to the attic to open and close the vent. You’re effectively earning those power savings.
Perhaps a bigger con is that vented skylights have a higher risk of leaking. If something gets stuck in the track or anything goes wrong with hinging or latching, you now have a leak in your attic. Properly designed vented skylights are by no means guaranteed to leak, but they certainly increase opportunities for water to find its way past your roof. At the very least, you can forget to close it and let a torrent of water into the home. That’s certainly not ideal.
Vented skylights can be amazing, and that’s why many people opt to have them installed. If you want attic space to be living space, they’re one of the best ways to go about the conversion — especially when window options are limited by the architectural design. The need to manually operate your skylights and the risk of leaks are ultimately small problems to consider, and for most homeowners, the cons are dwarfed by the benefits of natural airflow through the ceiling. That’s why vented skylights are increasingly popular and why they could do good things for your home.
If you think a vented skylight sounds good, you’ll want access to experts who understand them deeply. Contact Advanced Auto Glass for skylight installation and replacement in Dallas/Fort Worth. We can discuss your options at length and make recommendations to ensure that you get exactly what you want. Once the selection is made, we will professionally install your new skylight. You’ll have access to all of those benefits without any of the hassle of having to install it yourself.
