Reduce Skylight Heating

RELEVANT STORIES ( VIDEO 7 MIN ) • AUG 1, 2021
How to keep cool in a
heat wave with wild fire smoke
Today, we reduced the heat gain in my house by covering the skylights from the inside. In this video we show you how this can be done easily and cheaply.
You will need:
coroplast or cardboard
space blanket
scissors or utility knife
packing tape
ladder
Environment Canada is giving us a choice between cooking or choking, if you have no air conditioning or air filtration, during heat events with significant wild fire smoke.
During recent heat waves many people in coastal BC, where air conditioning is not as common, have been using outside air, particularly at night, to cool their houses. With increasing wild fire smoke this becomes a much less healthy option…
We describe a cost effective way to reduce heating of your home. The example provided is for skylights as this is low hanging fruit, but also applies to windows.
#Skylights #Cooling #HeatWave #SpaceBlanket #RadiantHeating #Coroplast #ClimateChange

[@DrewM91105]

Interesting approach. But that has to be the most ineffective taping job I have every seen. Using tiny little pieces of scotch tape is not going to work for very long. You need to use a stronger tape, perhaps aluminum tape, all along the overlapped edges of your mylar that will hold more effectively and for much longer. Keep in mind that the great deal of heat up there is going to soften the glue on most any tape, so maybe even use some kind of aggressive adhesive instead? Also I wonder if adding the barrier, whatever it's made of, outside the skylight instead of inside would be even more effective? Our single skylight is right over a staircase which makes me interested in this approach. Generally outer barriers reflect away more sunlight than inner barriers, at least I think that's the way it works. For example, if you put an umbrella on the roof over that skylight, wouldn't that stop much of the heat better than an inside barrier? I'd experiment a bit, not with umbrellas but with whatever could cover the skylight temporarily. Alternatives: Closed cell foam pads are designed to NOT allow the transfer of heat away from your body when you sleep on them. Would one large pad covered in reflective mylar work even better? If you could somehow drape 12" of fiberglass insulation over the outside (or inside) of that skylight as you do in your attic to keep heat inside the house in winter and outside in summer, that would also cut the heat down dramatically. Is there such a thing as "venetian blinds" for skylights where you close them only when you need to? How about using window reflective film on either the inside or the outside of the skylight to reflect away the sun? Getting it on would not be easy, but it could be done from the outside in the same way it's added to car windows -- squeegee, water and soap, etc.

[@Doctorcareerchanger]

Great video! Any issue with melting the skylight from this?

[@stonefolk]

Our skylights are made from flat glass. So we have not had any problem. Using highly reflective material should reflect most of the heat back out of the skylight. Still, depending on the reflective material and the nature of the skylight material, it may be possible to build up heat. Your mileage may vary.