Let the sunshine in with a solar powered skylight

Skylights can add drama to a room while saving you energy and cash Fort Mill – Arab Today You repainted last year, replaced lots of furniture this year and have just finished re-carpeting the rooms that needed a little TLC. But you still haven't found that final, magical touch that will take your home transformation to the next level.
There's one more thing you can do, and it's an improvement that not only makes a big visual impact, but can save energy in your home, and money too: Install no-leak solar powered fresh air skylights.
"Skylights bring design drama to rooms, yet they're a surprisingly cost-effective and functional home improvement," says Ross Vandermark, national product manager of Velux America, manufacturers of the unique no-leak skylight.
"In many instances, installing skylights will cost you less than furniture or new carpet. And if natural light is the touch you need to add drama and enhance your room design, placing Energy Star-qualified no leak solar powered fresh air skylights overhead is more practical and cost effective than trying to add windows to a wall."
The skylights open to let in air and natural light, and close automatically in case of rain. You can increase the energy efficiency of the units by adding solar powered blinds and both products, plus installation, are eligible for a 30 percent federal tax credit in the United States.
They are appealing home improvements on many levels, Vandermark says.
"First, they create a dramatic impact by opening rooms to the sky and admitting healthful natural light and fresh air,” he explains.
“Second, they can impact your home's energy efficiency by reducing dependency on artificial light sources and providing passive ventilation."
While Energy Star-qualified skylights function like a window to admit light and fresh air, they're less limiting to your overall design. Typically, skylights are installed on a blank slate - the ceiling - whereas adding windows would mean giving up wall space better used for other purposes.
And long gone are the days when skylights were a design feature limited to placement only in certain areas of your home. Now, there's a skylight that will work in virtually any room in the house.
Traditional skylights can still grace rooms that have direct roof access to the sky. But for many rooms or small interior spaces like laundry rooms or closets, tubular models, like Sun Tunnel skylights from Velux, can bring natural radiance into spaces that previously depended on artificial light.
"Few home improvements marry the dramatic design impact and energy saving boost that you get from adding no leak solar powered fresh air skylights," says Vandermark.
"When it comes to redesigning a room, they're truly a touch that elevates the look and feel of your decor and the functionality of the space."
For the icing on the cake, a well-selected solar powered blind, operated with the same remote as the skylights, can underscore the overall design theme of your room. The blind will not only complement the room design, it can enhance the efficiency of the skylights by helping control the amount of light or heat that enters or leaves your home in warm and cool weather.
Find out more about Velux on www.veluxusa.com, or read about window and skylight energy efficiency on www.energystar.gov