People living outside UK may not be familiar with what a roof lantern is. In United Kingdom, roof lanterns help the room to be flooded by light. Some houses in US also have roofing lanterns but they are very few in numbers, it is mainly United Kingdom, where their use is widespread.
A lantern on the roof has a typical structure. Such roofs are flat roofs. The lantern looks like a Dutch gable roof comprised by plates, found in hexagonal gazebo roofs. Internal structure of a roofing lantern is formed by using rafters just about the way box gable roofs are built. However, if the roof doesn’t have much space, the homeowner may prefer installing a small roofing lantern. Such a roof lantern looks like top most portion of a hexagonal gazebo roof.
Roof lanterns have some benefits. First, they add extra height to a room. Secondly, a room gets natural lighting effects. Usually, lanterns on roofs are positioned atop a living room or a kitchen. Due to roof lanterns, those rooms get full skylight and roof-light. The glasses play an important role here. Use of fixed glasses or poly glasses is good for the room because due to those panned glasses, all areas of the rooms get equal amount of light. For kitchens, natural light isn’t that important, but for living rooms, sunlight during the day creates a warm atmosphere. Since this light is natural, homeowners don’t have to pay anything extra for the electricity bill.
A roof lantern must be durable. This is indeed necessary because atop the roof, the lantern has to endure all the weather conditions. The blows of harsh winds, the seasonal rains, the thunderstorms and other climatic hazards can seriously damage it. To prevent this from happening, the lantern must be made of hard-wearing aluminum and glasses, so that the roof lantern could withstand harsh weather situations. The homeowner can use glasses with sidelights, which are great ways to make sure that the room is getting additional ventilation roots. So far the opening of a roof-light is concerned, the homeowner could open it manually or by using electric motor and a switch to turn it on.
