The article on use-relevant properties of skylights with regard to environmental influences highlighted criteria such as water and air tightness, resistance to wind load and stability under snow load. Beyond that, however, many other properties must be considered when it comes to installing skylights – looking at environmental influences alone is not enough. Nevertheless, there are many reasons for installing skylights such as glass skylights and not resorting to the alternative of artificial light, which appears cheaper at first glance.
One of the reasons for installing skylights is certainly to achieve the highest possible daylight yield. But what else does a builder need to consider?
Fire protection is crucial for human safety. With skylights, however, it is not only a matter of the highest possible daylight incidence. There is also a demand for ever greater ease of use. Security is also ensured by additional burglary protection devices. All this and more is summarised in the following article.
Daylight systems such as glass skylights or rooflight domes are installed based on various advantages. In addition to ventilation and smoke and heat extraction, one advantage of a skylight is the high level of daylight entering the building interior. Daylight has a positive effect on people both physically and psychologically. Medical research confirms the influence of natural light on:
Moreover, natural light contains the full colour spectrum, i.e. all the colours contained in the rainbow. The advantage of daylight is that it changes, i.e. it is dynamic. Depending on the time of day, the light adjusts in intensity and colour temperature, and this changing light, in turn, has a positive effect on people’s moods.
The alternative to daylight is artificial light, as we all know. This is produced by artificial sources and promotes, among other things, headaches, sleep disruption and even depression with long periods of exposure. Artificial light from lamps, for example, usually appears sterile and tiring compared to natural light. But why is that? Artificial light usually only has a constant brightness, colour and direction. In addition, the blue content in LED light is usually very high – this has a negative effect on people’s mood and health.
Conclusion: Adequate lighting with natural daylight is a key factor in ensuring a sense of well-being and, ultimately, also for safety and productivity in the workplace.
Special properties of incident daylight are of particular importance for health and safety in the workplace. In this free white paper, you can find out all the important facts about
One safety-relevant property of skylights is fire protection. Fire protection is essential in various buildings, not least in a shopping centre. If there is a fire in a building, temperatures increase rapidly in such a short period of time that supporting structures may fail and, in the worst case scenario, the entire building collapse. In the event of a fire, people must also be protected and enabled to escape from the building. Skylights make a significant contribution here.
![[Translate to English:] RWA im Einkaufscenter | insights by LAMILUX](/fileadmin/_processed_/b/3/csm_RWA-Einkaufscenter_7de3501efb.jpg "[Translate to English:] RWA im Einkaufscenter")
Due to the optimal position of skylights that can be opened, they are predestined for the task of fire protection. In this way, they can serve as smoke and heat extraction surfaces. These extraction areas in buildings also facilitate the rescuing of trapped people and enable targeted firefighting by the fire brigade by providing thermal relief for the building. Above all, smoke and heat extraction devices that are opened mechanically in the event of a fire minimise the heat as well as the smoke layer in the event of a fire. The smoke and heat extraction devices create a low-smoke layer on the floor, which allows better visibility for people endangered by the fire as well as for the rescue services.
This also creates an escape route with a lower proportion of smoke in the air, which enters the lungs of the trapped people and causes great damage there.
In the case of a rooflight dome, the plastic glazing can also melt. Heat can be dissipated through the freed opening, thus extending the load-bearing capacity. Heat extraction noticeably increases the load-bearing behaviour of load-bearing or separating components. As a result, the rooflight dome does not reach its critical temperature limit or does so with a significant time delay.
The industrial building guideline recommends a minimum required smoke and heat extraction area of approximately 5% of the total floor area. This percentage can ideally be combined with the installation of skylights and thus hardly requires any separate fire protection devices on the roof.
Sound insulation also plays an important role for building owners when planning a building. Traffic noise from the street should not reach the inside of the building. It's exactly the same the other way round: The constant noise of a production plant must not be allowed to escape outside and disturb the neighbours. Therefore, it is imperative that sound insulation is included in the planning. The entire construction of a skylight contributes to its sound insulation, i.e. the materials, the insulation, but also the workmanship of the entire element. An important factor here is also the glazing.
For skylights, glazing made of real glass achieves significantly better sound insulation values than the alternatives made of plastic. The values of, for example, rooflight domes and continuous rooflights made of plastic can be significantly improved with different layers of glazing or with additional layers of thicker plastic sheets. However, only glazing made of real glass achieves really high sound insulation values. Even better: The real glass glazing achieves the same values as masonry and in some cases even exceeds the sound insulation values of lightweight walls. In addition to the glazing, sound insulation is also influenced by the other elements of the skylight. A soundproof glass can therefore only achieve its full function when the frame system is also adequately sealed.
Sound insulation is therefore becoming an issue for architects, roofers and planners. An article on sound insulation for buildings explains the topic in more detail.
For the use of a skylight, the ease of use – also called usability – is, of course, also of great importance. But what is this usability that is always talked about? You probably know it from your own smartphone – which should be as easy as possible to use.
A device is therefore built in such a way that the ease with which a user navigates through technical systems – be it websites, smartphones or even the operation of automated skylights – is as high as possible. Automation of all processes is also increasingly a prerequisite.
For skylights, usability can therefore mean the control of ventilation drives or sun protection devices. LAMILUX Smart Control offers intuitive and simple operation of the skylight by voice command, via a smartphone app or via the familiar ventilation button.
It is not uncommon for burglars to try to break into industrial buildings or residential houses. Be it by levering, smashing or drilling – the windows are usually the place of entry. This is where burglary protection becomes essential.
Windows, doors and skylights can therefore be specially equipped to prevent burglary. Different resistance classes are defined in EN 1627. The resistance classes are classified according to the perpetrator profile, their modus operandi and tools as well as the resistance time. The longer the resistance of the component lasts, the higher the resistance class.
Skylights can be stabilised by glazing, frame parts, locks or hinges. Additional grilles, placed either inside or outside, can also minimise the risk of a successful break-in.
LAMILUX skylights are available in all three resistance classes. This makes it possible to freely decide how high the protection against burglary should be in the end. Moreover, these means usually protect not only against burglars, but also against breakthroughs: People can easily break through skylights when working on the roof. Some anti-burglary grilles are also fall-through grilles and thus also prevent this kind of accident. Depending on how much traffic there is on a roof, for example due to maintenance or cleaning work, and what type of glazing the skylights have, the devices should be adapted accordingly.
These are not the only properties that a skylight must fulfil. Hygiene criteria such as avoiding condensation can quickly become a health issue. To this end, it is important to know: How is condensate formed and why is condensate actually so harmful?
Warm air can absorb more moisture than cold air. So if warm, moist air cools down in a cold place, some of the moisture in the air is released on the surface, the water condenses and the pane fogs up. The process of condensation is therefore dependent on the air temperature, the moisture content of the air and the temperature of the air of the components.
Condensation can occur in extreme cases, even with high-quality products, when the outside temperature is extremely low. So it is by no means a sign of a lack of quality. It is only important that the condensate does not remain for a prolonged period of time, but dries up again as quickly as possible.
However, it is usually not the glazing itself that is the problem but the thermal bridges. Products that achieve a very good U-value may nevertheless be prone to condensation. It is important here that the products are free of thermal bridges in addition to the U-value. This also applies to point or linear thermal bridges.
The potential for condensate formation is high, especially in areas with high humidity. Fogged-up windows can often be seen here. Due to their position in the house, skylights are particularly exposed to extreme environmental influences such as rain, storms or heat or cold waves. The risk of condensation is all the greater due to cold and a high proportion of humidity in the house.
And it is precisely this condensation that collects on rubber seals and joints. But why is that so bad?
Mould growth is the answer. This is because mould growth is optimally favoured there.
Areas around windows, especially those that are frequently tilted, also often create cool surfaces, which, in turn, collect moisture from the warm air in the room. This is where mould growth is accelerated.
With regard to condensation, the passive house elements perform particularly well. LAMILUX has also taken into account the thermal bridges in the products and calculated corresponding isothermal curves (10°/12°) and surface temperatures. Most products are therefore free of thermal bridges and thus significantly reduce the risk of condensation.
It is one of the most important selling points: the design. Users are willing to dig deeper into their pockets to get the design they want. The best example of this is Apple. Apple customers are willing to pay several hundred euros more to enjoy the design of Apple devices. This is also the case in the automotive industry. In the B2B sector for skylights, the design and appearance of the products also play a major role. So what is it like with daylight systems? A skylight can be built in various designs. Several skylight designs can be used to increase the amount of daylight entering the room.
Skylights from LAMILUX, such as the glass skylight FE, score points with design features that all also fulfil a function.
An example of such a design feature: structural glazing. In this process, the glass and frame are connected without any disturbing connecting elements and without external holders. This has the advantage that rainwater runs off level and takes the dirt that has collected on the pane with it.
This natural cleaning effect means that: Daylight comes in and dirty edges are out!
In summary, it can be said that skylights have to meet many different requirements. Of course, these are always to be determined according to priority and location. So the builder weighs up: What is particularly important to me? Daylight, design and usability? Or daylight penetration, fire protection and sound insulation? Also: In which location am I erecting the building? Is it exposed to extreme conditions such as high snow loads or great heat? Do I therefore need to maintain a certain U-value in order to lose as little heat as possible to the outside and how can I achieve this through special glazing, for example?
The individual case is decisive and the advice of the manufacturers of dskylights is particularly helpful. LAMILUX, for example, offers an all-round service for planners, architects or roofers covering all aspects of the planning, dimensioning, installation or costing of its skylights.
