Commercial Building Skylights: Installation & Repair

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Commercial Skylights · Sun Tunnels · Domes

How to Choose the Best Commercial Daylighting: Skylights, Sun Tunnels, and Domes

For over 25 years, Pacific Roofing Systems has proven to be Orange County’s premier daylighting roofing company and is often considered the best roofer for installing skylights, sun tunnels, and domes throughout Southern California. Contact us for the highest quality roofing contractor you can trust to complete your project with great care and expertise.

Daylighting is a strategy that allows natural sunlight to illuminate the interior space of a building or facility in Orange County without the need to rely exclusively on electrical lighting during the day. Using natural light will enable occupants to switch off artificial light, saving energy costs. Daylight does not heat a space as much as artificial lighting, thus creating less demand for the cooling system. Natural light helps control and reduce glare, allowing business owners to distribute light more uniformly throughout a space. Finally, people who work in an environment filled with natural light tend to be happier and more productive.

Daylighting is ideal for commercial and industrial facilities with large flat roofs through which skylights and sun tunnels can be installed. Costco, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart are examples of large commercial facilities that use huge skylights to allow natural light to pour into their stores, making them cheerful spaces to shop and enjoy.

Structural Skylights

Designed for long-lasting good looks, VELUX Structural Skylights offer 6 different configurations, creating versatile, fully customized configurations with a broad range of quality glazing options.

Horizon Series

Comprised of polycarbonate panel systems, translucent wall systems, and canopy systems, the VELUX Commercial Horizon Series is available in pitched and pyramid systems to compliment any commercial environment.

Dome Unit Skylights

Engineered to closely match the angles of the sun during low-light periods to harvest more sunlight to transfer indoors, VELUX Domes offer uncompromising strength and a visually stunning design. These are just a few examples.

When installed on commercial buildings, skylights and daylighting systems provide benefits that no other light source can offer, providing optimal light distribution at a building’s core while minimizing glare and enhancing architectural design.

The key is to coordinate the location of roof daylighting openings with the uses of interior spaces to provide even light distribution where it can serve as an optimum source. Single-story interior spaces can efficiently be designed to access the roof for daylighting. One solution for multi-story buildings is to use a central atrium that provides interior spaces access to a shared space daylit from the roof. In the case of metal roofing systems, the incorporation of any roof opening needs to be carefully addressed for proper flashing, weatherproofing, and longevity.

Benefits of Daylighting

Environmentally, daylighting reduces power plants’ load, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and lessening air and water pollution. Skylights and sun tunnels generate almost no heat, facilitating a facility’s electricity use. In addition, the overall effect of natural daylighting is an aesthetically pleasing environment in which to live, work and interact.

Anytime bright daylight is brought into a comparatively darker building, there is a need to control the amount and quality of that light to prevent uncomfortable glare or unwanted lighting contrasts. Sun tunnels address this by incorporating filters that diffuse and alter the quality of the light, filtering it down to the level of the average electrical light fixture.

However, daylighting doesn’t come without some challenges. Any time you perforate the roof and your roofing materials, there is a chance for leaks to develop unless the installation of the skylight is professionally designed and handled. In addition, ceilings with skylights need more maintenance to maintain leak-proof seals around the perforations. However, most property owners and managers feel the benefits far outweigh the maintenance costs. With or without skylights, maintenance should be performed regularly.

Whether you’re trying to find the right commercial roofing solution for a new building or replacing an old commercial roofing system in Orange County, California, contact Pacific Roofing Systems and talk to one of our specialists about daylighting your facility.