Natural Light

Here in Montana we are lucky to have the extra long hours of light in the Spring through early fall months. With the rising cost of energy, and an ever-present movement to go green, it’s a good thing to consider how much natural light is built into your new custom home. Various lighting options such as track lighting vs recessed or sconces vs lamps, are important considerations as well, and there’s a host of bulb options to power those fixtures that are considered both efficient and comfortable. But, during the daylight hours, there’s no light source that beats natural light. So, getting more natural light throughout the home takes a little more planning than just assuming where window locations will be.

There’s a few places in the home that would greatly benefit from a wall of windows. Staircases are perfect places for natural light. These normally darker spaces in the home—often staircases are long walled-in type locations—can brighten right up with a large window or a series of windows. Also, landings are great places to add more windows.

Skylights are also obvious choices for natural light in the home. Skylights can be added to any room of the home. Often, however, skylights are added to kitchens and living rooms, but a skylight can brighten any room. There’s also a tubular lighting device, which is like a mini skylight—think recessed lighting powered by the sun. These mini skylights would work great, spaced evenly apart in a long, dark hallway. Also, these tubular skylights brighten up any bathroom. Bathrooms, for obvious reasons, are often built without much natural light for privacy reasons. A skylight or a tubular skylight can bring a ton of natural light into the room, while, at the same time, protecting privacy.

Other more obvious choices are exterior glass doors near living rooms or outside space accesses. These doors not only bring in light, but they also provide a large framing of the outside spaces of your home. On the interior of the home, glass paned doors could be used throughout the rooms—for privacy add curtains—and this would allow a continuous flow of natural light throughout the home, even when doors are closed.

For all of your construction needs, please contact JDL Construction today!