TuffX’s Paul Higgins explains how rooflights can provide innovative solutions to maximise natural light, create dedicated work zones, and balance energy efficiency with comfort in your self-build or renovation
Times have changed, and our homes are changing with them. Energy prices have rocketed to heights we never would have imagined, and the cost of living continues to rise. We’re unlikely to see the historically low mortgage rates we’ve become used to again for a long time.
Financially speaking this all affects customers’ decisions, whether they are self-builders or renovators.
But we’re also still working from home since the pandemic, if not full-time, then in a hybrid fashion which has been so popular among employees and looks set to stay to some degree or other. This impacts how we want to use and feel about our homes, which are working harder than ever. So it’s about making quality product choices with benefits that justify the cost, and longer term also improves the efficiency of the home and consequently mitigates the cost of those rising energy bills.
New home spaces, with room for desks and ideally dedicated work areas that can be stepped away from at the end of the day, have become popular as we work more from home, but are no longer happy to do so hunched over a laptop on the sofa or at the dining table. Rooflights can provide a creative solution to ‘zoning’ new areas in the home – be it a home office or new living space.
Using rooflights creates the impression of separate ‘zones’ in an otherwise open space. They’re a great way to update an open plan home to include a new designated zone for work or living.
Rooflights and lanterns are also ideal for extensions as they flood the home with natural light, particularly in terraced or narrow properties, where the centre of the house can become quite dark. Natural light isn’t just a ‘nice-to-have’ either, it can reduce eye strain, headaches and fatigue, as well as increase productivity; all important in a home working environment.
For year-round comfort, solar glass rooflights are popular, but most come with a compromise. These usually include a glass tint applied to the outer pane to help manage heat transmission, although this tint also reduces light transmission which can have a substantial impact on ambient light levels in the home.
However, if you do your research, you will find new products are slowly coming to market that do away with this trade-off between heat management and the proportional loss of light associated with tinted solar products.
The result of these innovative products is maximum light transmission with minimal solar heat gain, helping to maintain comfortable indoor summer temperatures. New, pioneering glass coatings can now absorb and reflect up to twice as much heat as standard glass, meaning homeowners are no longer forced to choose between light and comfort. If homeowners opt for a unit with a low U-value too, heat should be retained equally well during the winter months.
Times may be tough, but that’s why it is more important than ever to make sure the products you choose in your home build or renovation are working hard to give you what you need – energy efficiency, great value and a home that performs as brilliantly as it looks.’
CASE STUDY: FITTING FIRSt TIME
Adrian at United Cloud Construction turned to TuffX when he needed a rooflight solution for a new extension to a property in Brighton where the homeowners wanted to maximise the natural light in their new space. The rooflights were to be installed on the low pitch roof of a single storey garden room extension to the rear of the customer’s property.
With the limited-size roof unable to accommodate a traditional roof lantern, two Infinity rooflights were chosen.
Adrian fitted two different sized rooflights – one 1 m x 1 m, and one 1 m x 1.5 m, which were both standard sizes although bespoke sizes can also be arranged on request. Rooflights are also available in various glass finishes, including clear, solar and privacy glass.
Rooflights can offer a solution for customers who want a simple, effective and high-quality rooflight that they can fit themselves quickly with no additional assembly on site.
Paul Higgins is commercial director at TuffX