Should You Install Daylighting Skylights on Your Roof?
Installing daylighting skylights on your facility can be advantageous both environmentally and economically. Daylighting skylights aim to maximize visual comfort in the facility and also to reduce energy use. Energy savings are achieved with daylighting skylights because they dramatically reduce the amount of artificial lighting in a facility.
There are not many drawbacks to installing daylighting skylights. Although they are more expensive than traditional skylights, the amount of money saved with the reduced energy usage in the facility is worth the extra investment. Daylighting skylights are prismatic in design and are engineered to reflect light down into a workspace or interior space, unlike a traditional skylight. The amount of daylighting skylights needed in a facility is also less than traditional skylights because of their ability to reflect the light throughout the workspace.
Distribution centers, warehouses, and other large, one-story facilities with lots of overhead lighting are the most ideal candidates for daylighting skylights. Smaller facilities cannot reap the volume of energy savings like larger facilities will. Studies have shown that natural sunlight in the workplace can increase workers’ morale and productivity, as well as make the product sell better if the daylighting skylights are in a retail setting.
While a lighting contractor could install the daylighting skylights, a roofing contractor can provide assurance that the installation will be watertight and the surrounding roof will not be damaged. Their crews know how to walk on the roof and be sensitive to the surrounding roof area so it does not sustain any damage while installing daylighting skylights. They can retrofit skylights with daylighting skylights or can easily add them. The easiest way to add daylighting skylights is to install them as part of a large roofing project; this way the roofing crew can construct the new roof based on the placement of the daylighting skylights.
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