Skylights are roof windows which can either serve only for natural light admission, case in which they are fixed, or provide additional ventilation for the room, case in which they feature an opening system which can be automatic or manual. Skylights can be flat and rectangular, like any other window in the house, or they can have polygonal or rounded shapes. The most spectacular are those who have 3D shapes such as pyramid or dome. Because most of the times skylight windows are not vertical, they can be used to attract and capture heat from the daylight, so they may serve as an important component in the building of passive houses. However, in most cases, skylights with bigger areas need to be very well insulated and UV protected, because they favor thermal exchanges at the glass surface level, thus causing the inside heat to dissipate during the winter and outside heat to enter into the room during summer. This is also the reason why such windows are usually sold and installed together with matching blinds or shades, which can be automatic or manually operated via cranks. Another viable and relatively widespread solution, but which increases the price for this type of windows, is to have the glass panes glazed.

Why Do People Fear Skylights

Despite their beauty and elegance, skylights can prove themselves to be real pains because of several considerations, thus making many people shy away from them:

Leakages: this is maybe the most important reason for such fears. Fact is that if they are already built in the house, it’s difficult to tell if they are going to leak or not when you buy the house. If you can, it would be best to visit it after a heavy rain and see if there’s any damage. If you’re building a house and you think to incorporate skylights, make sure to buy top quality ones, from highly recommended manufacturers, and have them installed by qualified staff. Beware that some roofing materials are incompatible with lead, for instance, so if you buy skylights that contain lead, you may experience early wear and leakages. Besides, if you are the type of guy who collects rain water draining from the roof for domestic purposes, you should know that lead is toxic.

A simple method to minimize leaking is to install a metal edging a few inches up the slope on the roof, which would prevent rain water to run directly over the skylight. Installing such edgings may not be a do-it-yourself project, so you might want to consider hiring some specialized team of workers to have it done for you.

Room overheating: it’s already well-known that rooms at the top floor or immediately under the roof get much warmer during hot days than the rest of the house. Darkening shades can be an excellent fix, but you should bear in mind that they are not exactly cheap. In some situations, prices can be ridiculously high, even if you choose the manually operated system. A remote control would add some more to the price.

You may ask yourself why then install skylights, if they only bring trouble and draw money out of your pocket. Well, the light coming from the roof will make the room so cheerful that you’ll feel better. Well-being is important, maybe more important than money or leakage risks, so why not improve the quality of your life, if you can? Moreover, many people suffering from depressions admitted they felt an improvement after they’ve installed skylights in their rooms. It seems that natural light has beneficial effects on the human mind, as it makes us think in a more positive manner.

Benefits of Skylights Remote Control Systems

Although remote controlling of skylights and of their shadings is not an absolute must-have, it’s a very cool to have feature, for the simple reason that skylights are most of the times hard-to-reach windows. It’s true that you can very well use crank systems or rods to open and close the windows or their blinds, but blockages are quite frequent, because the control over the rod movement is quite poor. If you have the budget to afford structural glazing of the glass or electrochromic windows, that’s excellent, if not, you can surely do without.

No further than 20 years ago, nobody would have imagined that one day would come when we are going to lay down in bed and operate the TV set remotely. Now, not only are we using a remote to switch on and off the TV, but we also zap through channels, we adjust the air conditioning, we start or stop the DVD player. Some of us went even further, creating the motorized window treatment solutions. While it’s in many situations only a matter of laziness and comfort, there are cases when automated window shades are saving us from big hassle. Even if it’s only about a bit more comfort, if you can afford it, then why not? If your grandparents were washing their laundry at the bucket, it doesn’t mean we have to do the same today. Each generation has its time and ours is a time of convenience and simplification of life, so we can have more time for more important things.

Cases of window blinds where automation is highly recommended

Motorized blinds appeared most probably after the skylight windows and roof windows were invented. Those of you who have lived in a home with skylights know how difficult it is to move the blinds up and down using those long poles or those infinite cords that hang all over the place. Leaving aside the household environment, electric blinds proved to be very useful in offices, cinema and theater halls and other public places. Shutting down the blinds in a huge hall with dozens of windows takes either a lot of time or a lot of people to do it simultaneously. By having them automated, everything is done in seconds, just by pushing a button on the remote control.

One of the most special types of rooms for which motorized shades are highly recommended is the conservatory. A conservatory is a room which has more glass than brick walls, plus a glass roof. As spectacular as they may be, conservatories need special window treatments, because of the big surface exposed to direct sunlight. Thermal insulation is a must-have. Remote control blinds are useful, especially if we think that by definition, a conservatory has a very tall roof, taller than average houses do.

Another situation when automatic blinds can prove to be extremely useful is impairing illness. If you can’t get off the bed and you’re bothered by the sunlight, or on the contrary, you feel like reading and there’s not enough light in the room, instead of asking for help, you could just use the remote control and adjust the window blinds as you wish. The benefits are more important than the extra money you have to pay for incorporating the electric motor and the remote.

Types of Motorized Window Treatments

These are the main window coverings that are suitable to go electric:

• Shades
  • Cellular Shades
  • Pleated Shades
  • Skylight Shades
  • Custom Shades
• Blinds
  • Venetian Blinds
  • Mini Blinds
  • Vertical Blinds
  • Skylight Blinds
  • Roof Windows Blinds
• Shutters
• Draperies
• Curtains

We are going to take a look in detail to each category over the next chapters, with indications of manufacturers where you can order electric window treatments.