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What are Tinted Stained Glass Skylights?
Skylight glass in Sydney are a popular home installation used to ventilate and illuminate homes. They reduce electricity costs by cutting down on the use of air conditioners and heating systems in a home.
The light that skylights stream into buildings also improves the disposition and health of its occupants. They also enhance a living space by making it interesting and comfortable.
Therefore, people are increasingly installing skylights in residential and commercial buildings for their benefits.
However, the efficiency of a skylight is determined by the materials used to make it. And glazing is one of the essential parts of a skylight.
Glass glazing and UV protection
The most popular types of glazing used to make skylights are glass and plastic.
Glass is more popular because it is durable. It can stream clear and bright light into a room, minimizing the need for artificial lighting systems.
Glass glazing comes in different designs, such as tempered or double-paned glass.
The type of glazing you choose for your skylight determines the kind of sunrays that stream into your home.
You may not know this, but the light we get from the sun is made of different types of UV rays. These are UVB and UVA rays.
Excess UVB and UVA rays can cause skin cancer and sunburn. Therefore, allowing them to stream into your home unchecked exposes you and your loved ones to health risks.
These powerful UV rays can also slowly degrade household items by fading, cracking, or breaking them. They also spoil the integrity of valuable furnishings or art, for example, by darkening wooden antiques.
Although most skylights can block UVB rays, few can block UVA rays which are 500 times more powerful than the former one. And you need a way to protect yourself and the interior of your home from their damaging effects.
The type of material used to make your glazing determines whether or not your skylight blocks harmful rays from streaming into your house.
Some popular examples are ordinary clear glass glazing, reflective glass glazing, and tinted glass glazing.
Clear glass can only block 25 percent of UVA rays, while tinted or reflective glass blocks 50 to 75 percent.
However, reflective glass will not give you the best visibility and illumination from your skylight because it bounces light off of it.
Tinted glass is a better option because it allows some amount of light through while filtering out harmful sun rays.
If you are using clear glass on your skylight, you should consider tinting it to benefit from its ability to block harmful rays.
Benefits of tinted skylights
In order to appreciate the benefits of tinted skylights, we should look at how they differentiate themselves from regular skylights.
Regular skylights have a diffuser (the part of a skylight you see on your ceiling) with clear glass on them, while stained or tinted skylights have a colored or tinted finish on the diffuser.
You have the option of using tinted glass in different colors on your skylight diffuser.
You can also pick glass with interesting patterns or designs imprinted on it, such as those that match your ceiling trim.
The ability to use different colors, patterns, and trims on a tinted skylight gives you a chance to improve its appearance while protecting yourself from harmful sun rays.
You can also match the color of your skylight tint to your home decor (something you cannot achieve with a plain skylight).
In these ways, tinted skylights bring more value to your home than plain skylights.
Alternatives to tinted skylight glazing
Tinting your skylight may reduce the amount of light you stream into your home, but it will also minimize glare and heat gain.
These two negative aspects of sunlight destroy furnishings and increase electricity use. Therefore, anything that can help you to reduce them is a better option.
However, some people think low-emission glass is enough to keep out harmful UV rays.
Others prefer laminated glazing or UV protective glass (two types of glazing that can filter out between 95 and 99 percent of UV light).
And while these are viable options, tinted glazing is a more interesting option because you can also use it to improve your house aesthetics.
And you do not even have to replace your clear glass to get a tinted finish. You can apply window film to it to achieve the tint of your choice.
If you are worried about aesthetics because you think tinted glass is boring, it’s not. It is available in various colors, such as grey, blue, and bronze, that you can use to enhance your skylight and its capabilities.
However, it is important to note that the color of tinted glass you choose for your skylight will determine the amount of light you get from it.
Your choice of tint should allow as much light as possible to stream through your skylight.
And if you think tinting your skylight is too tedious, you have the option of buying already manufactured tinted glazing.
An even easier option is to use spray tint to change the appearance of your skylight.
Spray tint gives you a quick way to change the appearance of your skylight and enhance its UV blocking capabilities.
You may also use window film for the same purpose. It is a more popular and durable option if you compare it to spray tint.
At the end of the day, regardless of the method you use to tint your skylight, it is one of the best ways to filter out harmful sun rays from the natural light streaming into your home.
But if darkening or changing the color of your skylight glazing is something you are uncomfortable with, low-emission glazing, laminated glazing, and UV protection glazing are other options.
You also have the option of installing some other types of glazing that allows you to control the flow of light without tinting it, such as electrochromic glass.
Electrochromic glass allows you to automatically control the tint of your skylight using an app on your phone or remote control.
For example, you could increase the tint of your skylight when it’s sweltering hot to improve its protective properties and lower it when the weather is pleasant for a clear view of the sky.
And if changing the tint of your skylight is not an option, blinds are another excellent way to reduce heat gain and block harmful rays from destroying your interior and decor.
Applying window film on your skylight
As mentioned above, you can apply window film onto your skylight to tint it as you do with vertical windows.
Window tint or film is manufactured to withstand even the hottest sun rays while filtering harmful UV rays.
Some types of window film can reduce solar heat by 63 percent and sun glare by 62 percent. Those with UV protection can block up to 99 percent of ultraviolet rays from streaming into your home.
It is an alternative to window tinting that you can use to lower your skylight’s solar heat gain coefficient.
It is also a great way to insulate your skylight and reduce heat loss if you live in a cold area, which will cut down on the use of heaters.
Window film also increases the impact resistance of glazing, making it shatterproof.
Therefore, if you have a skylight over your child’s room, applying window film on it is a great way to make it safer and more efficient.
You will also find some types of window film that enhance the outside view. Usually, it depends on the color of the tint.
For example, bluish-grey window film provides a better view of the sky simply because the sky is blue too. It is one of the most popular hues used on skylight tints.
However, note that the kind of material your skylight is made of will determine the type of window film you apply to it. If your skylight is made of glass, you may use regular window film to coat it.
Standard window film will not adhere to plexiglass. Therefore, if your skylight is made of plexiglass, buy window film made explicitly for that kind of material.
Some types of glazing are also not compatible with window tint. For instance, annealed glass spontaneously shatters when coated with window film.
Therefore, before applying window film on your skylight to tint the glazing, consult an expert to help you choose the right type.
Also, keep in mind that you can only apply window film to flat surfaces. Therefore, if your skylight is of a different shape, such as a dome skylight or pyramid skylight, you cannot apply window film to it.
And although you can cover the interior and exterior of glass glazing with window film depending on how much sun protection you need to put over it, it’s better to apply it on one side to maximize the illumination you get from your skylight.
Do you want to tint your skylight?
Tinted skylights are the best choice for anyone looking to combat the issues associated with sun damage.
Applying window film onto your skylight glazing will not only improve its performance, but it may also earn you federal tax credits.
Therefore, when installing window film to your skylight, find out how you can get tax credits for it.
Although applying window film over a glass skylight is easy, you risk a dangerous fall by doing it yourself. Therefore, take safety precautions, such as wearing a harness when doing it.
However, it’s best to hire a professional window tint expert for the job to minimize the chances of wrongful installations, which will ensure it lasts for a long time.
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