Making Your House Smart with Skylights

Smart homes are the next step up from green homes and can in fact make it greener and more efficient. And with more and more companies jumping on board, achieving a smart home isn’t that far out of reach.

And as if we haven’t asked this question enough…
So where do skylights fit in?

Well, here is a really cool example: the HGTV Smart Home. It’s more than just about skylights (though you should check out this video), think about the other windows in your home too. This all contributes to the indoor climate of your house and controls what you can do to make your home efficient. By cracking the windows during the cooler morning or evening hours and opening the skylight hot stale air will be pulled out while cool clean air is pulled in. Smart homes allow complete control over the inner and outer workings of your house making it easier to heat and cool and your home practically and effortlessly to save money, time and energy.

Timing these new improvement can increase the overall bang for your buck. During new construction or if you’re having your roof replaced you might consider installing a new skylight or a solar attic fan while the shingles are off. While there’s work going on in the attic consider adding more insulation. This does sound like a lot, but when you can do these improvement all at once you save on installation costs and the energy saving are appreciable.

Some thoughts to consider when making those changes: if you’re living in a home that’s 30 or 40 years or older potentially your home is under insulated and that’s a huge heat and money loss. Extra insulation keeps it cool in the summer. Another step to decrease heat gain is an attic fan. A lot of heat gets trapped up in the attic, which can transfer down into the house making cooling more difficult. With the extra insulation and an attic fan you can keep heat from leaking into your house in the summer. In the winter the extra insulation keeps the heat in.

As discussed before, older windows leak warm air, letting in the cold in the winter and vice versa in the summer. Replacing the old metal frames with wood frames, which works as a natural insulator, and newer technology windows that have two panes with argon gas (great insulator!) in between allows more control over temperature fluctuations no matter the season. Don’t forgot to add blinds for even more energy savings!

So if you’re considering steps to make your house green take it one step further and make it smart.

An easy step towards smart is smart windows, solar skylights and blinds. With these skylights you can program when they’ll open and close based on the time of day by just using a remote. Settings can be matched to your smart thermostat for optimal climate control when you’re at home or away.

There are a lot of benefits to be gained from these kind of home improvements. The top being saving money, improving your home’s value, but you’ll also gain a good feeling about being green.