Back in the days, a glazed glass rooflights in a room used to make the space it was covering below very cold during the colder days. When the overhead features were not sealed properly, the draughts and cold winds would pass through and create uninvited winter ventilation. As a result, these structures were finally made to be smaller. In some extreme instances, rooflights were removed and covered over as a result of their impracticality. For one thing, the rooflights were not weather-proof enough and their maintenance was an expensive and huge problem.
However, today’s skylights are very different and can serve many purposes – they can brighten dull or dark rooms naturally by letting in the sun to shine, they can enhance the designs of lifeless rooms, they can improve the rooms by providing them with a great view and, to a certain extent, they can help in regulating the room temperature. There are many types of skylights which are available on the market, some are designed to be used for a particular purpose, but most of them can fulfill multiple functions.
When choosing glass rooflights the first thing most property owners look at is their shape. Those who just need basic skylights can go for the rectangular or square one, consisting of one flat pane of glass, since they will probably be sufficient for their purposes. To those who are looking for something more interesting, there are hexagon-shaped, dome-shaped, pyramid-shaped, arched, polygon-shaped, or they can have a particular shape designed according to their own specifications; but, the prices of the skylights normally go up as their shape gets more complex.
The size of the glass rooflights is another factor which should be considered. A larger size will allow more light to come in the room but it will also be more expensive to buy and to install.
Another consideration is the type of pane that the skylight will have, the basic choices being acrylic or glass. For glass types, the materials can range from a single pane of insulated glass, to multiple panes of glass which are sandwiched over one or more layers of krypton or argon gas. For acrylic types, everything is available from the basic fiber sheet to a wide variety of colorful polycarbonate materials.
Different materials normally have different disadvantages and advantages; for example, glass skylights can have a solar coating or an insulating which increases their life span, however glass shatters quite easily. Plastics materials on the other hand, while lacking the special coatings, are less expensive and more durable.
There is also a wide array of special features and options that need to be considered. For instance, you can buy a “ventilating” glass rooflights that can be opened to let air pass through and this that can be very helpful if the room doesn’t have proper ventilation. Additionally, there are bug screens to ventilate skylights in order to prevent insects from entering the room and there are shades and curtains available for all types of glass rooflights to stop the sunlight from entering the room when it is too hot.