Reduce heat from skylight

singlemama

I have 2 skylights in my living room and I hate them in the summer. They let in so much heat that my living room is always 10 degrees warmer than the rest of my house. I found some skylight covers online but they are around $65 each. I can't afford that right now but its so hot already I need to do something. My idea is to duct tape solar screen to the outside of the skylights. I know its ghetto but its so hot in my house I can't take it. My brother said the sun will cause the duct tape to not stick after a few days. What do you think or do you have any ideas?

Dierte

Get them tinted

Windows on Wash

+1

There are solar control films out there by 3M that work very well and will not void your warranty (actually they still might but supposedly 3M covers it at that point).

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knotquiteawake

Tape some heavy duty tin foil to the inside. BAM! DIY Radiant Barrier.

Tinting is a pretty good compromise between letting all the heat/light in and blacking it totally out. If I really wanted to keep the heat out I would black it out with one of those covers or tinfoil. If having natural light was really important then I would pony up for the tinting.

oberon

For two reasons it's a shame that the previous post is simply spam ....first, the cellular shades really aren't a bad idea, and two, as a huge sushi fan, I love that name...

Windows on Wash

Spam, like sushi, does stink after a few days though.

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oberon

Well sushi must be eaten freash of couse, but spam is the eternal food.

They found ancient spam when excavating Egyptian tombs that was still edible after all this time...well relatively...as much as spam is ever actually edible

sdsester

It was next to a package of milleniums old twinkies.

Blinds are not that expensive and if you get custom fitted ones online, request the bottom anchors so they stay without sagging. Open and close as needed.

Most anything you attach to the outside is going to blister and peel off.

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JackOfAllTrades

Removing the skylights would be my solution. Skylights are like holes in your roof, they let out the heat in the winter and let out the cool during summer. Not to mention the Solar Heat Gain from those things in summer makes things brutal.

In high-energy efficient home builds, skylights are of the devil.

Windows on Wash

Most folks don't much care about the energy efficiency and they can be made to be relatively efficient.

Combine that with the natural day lighting and reductions in space lighting as a result of that fact and they are not a terrible idea.

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AndyWRS

do whatever helps atm but,

You need to determine if you have the wrong skylights installed also. It is quite possible that they are single dome...in that case yeah its gonna be an oven in there. I just removed a single dome 4x4 in Mission Viejo and installed a 4x4 double dome + it was openable...they were having the paint peel in the upper skylight shaft due to the heat.

Do your temp fix then look into what type of skylight you currently have. By next summer, pending $, you could get them swapped out. Of course curb mounts will be easy, deck mount you would need a roofer unless your handy.

In addition to single and double dome, the tint or lack there of will also contribute to the heat transfer. The darker the tint then less heat transfer but also less light transfer. The lighter the tint the more heat and light will transfer..

I used to live in Fair Oaks and i know how hot it gets up there.

greyboy

If you are on a tight budget, solar screen and a good quality foil air conditioning tape will work just fine to get you through the summer. A little ghetto, but it will work.