Designing Your Home for Maximum Natural Light and Energy Efficiency

For many people, sunlight brings warmth, calmness, and contentment. With that being said, you can make your Denver days more endurable by maximizing the benefits of natural lighting in your home. Besides being energy efficient, boosting the amount of natural light could have a positive influence on your productivity and mood.

The Benefits of Increasing the Amount of Natural Light

Sustainable Design

By using natural light, you can:

• Substantially decrease dependence on artificial lighting
• Reduce energy consumption
• Lessen your environmental footprint.

Installing energy-efficient windows, such as Altius Windows in your Denver home will further increase this benefit.

Better Wellbeing and Health

Natural lighting improves mood and delivers vitamin D. Furthermore, recent studies prove natural light aids in diminishing the symptoms of Sick Building Syndrome.

Research has shown a lack of access to light could deteriorate a person’s physical and mental health. On the other hand, frequent exposure to natural light:

• Boosts serotonin levels in the brain
• Decreases stress and fatigue
• Enhances mood and energy levels

Natural light contributes to an overall sense of better home and health.

Spacious Feel

Natural light makes small spaces feel bigger by producing an airy environment and decreasing shadows. Light reflecting off ceilings and walls enlarges the peripheries of your room.

How To Bring More Natural Light to Your Home

When you plan on doing any remodeling to your Denver home, whether it’s a complete house remodel or only a room or two, think about investing in window replacements that will increase the amount of natural light entering your home and enhance energy efficiency.

Using natural light as the main lighting source decreases electricity usage, contributing to total energy efficiency. Furthermore, including energy-saving windows lets homeowners use natural light efficiently.

Position Your Home

It all starts with the orientation of your home. To make the most of the available natural light, make sure your house is positioned correctly. This could include maximizing window placement to line up with the sun’s path during the day. The position of your home, when it comes to the sun, could be one of the most vital factors in maximizing the sun’s usage.

Maximize Window Potential

Windows that are correctly insulated and sealed can lessen heat loss and stop drafts during the wintertime. Additionally, they also let sunlight warm your interiors. Accurately installed windows could also diminish heat gain during the summer, decreasing the need to constantly run your AC.

Cleverly placed windows throughout your home maximize the entry of sunlight, infusing your interior with brightness and warmth. Consider including energy-efficient windows in your house design to encourage the entry of natural light, producing an inviting and radiant setting that promotes energy savings and a relationship with the outdoors.

If you’ve got an airy and tall room, including a room with a vaulted ceiling, think about putting an abundance of high windows close to the roof. You can make good use of all that unused space instead of leaving it to collect dust.

When crafting your new home design, be sure you install some windows higher in specific areas, allowing additional lighting to enter. High-level windows in bathrooms and bedrooms provide natural lighting without having to give up on privacy.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Mirrors affixed to opposite light sources or windows magnify natural light, crafting a sense of warmth and ease. Installing mirrors in key corners can put light into the darker spaces of a room. Putting big mirrors directly across from windows creates a second window effect, heightening the amount of natural light in the room. By moving natural light, mirrors fabricate the feeling of a larger and brighter room.

Besides mirrors, several indirect light sources, such as lamps, can strengthen the effect of natural light, producing a comfy, warm setting. Positioned purposefully around the room, lamps can help spread natural light equally. They are very useful at night when indirect lighting is crucial to helping the body calm down.

Another suggestion is to exchange parts of an exterior wall with glass blocks. These are particularly useful in areas where windows are undesirable, such as a bathroom.

Eliminate Objects That Block Natural Light

To optimize the benefits of your current home, walk around the exterior of your home and take notice of any objects that block natural light including shrubs and trees. Consider trimming or eliminating shrubs or trees around your windows to let additional natural light flow into your home. Furthermore, keeping the windows clean and free from hindrances will increase the amount of natural light that comes into the house.

Light-Friendly Furnishings and Fixtures

Do you have a window that gives off light that is way too strong at times? Consider light-friendly furnishings and fixtures that increase daylight while counteracting the glare. These items help natural light seep into a room without the uneasy power of the noontime sun.

Nothing makes a Denver home feel luxurious and roomy like the stunning radiance of natural light. Lots of sunlight can save you a nice amount of money on your energy bills while lessening your carbon footprint. When designing your home for maximum natural light, you want to emphasize innovative design and sustainable solutions.

Open Plan Design

Removing walls, such as a wall separating the kitchen and dining room, implies light can come through any corner, making the entire space appear spacious. The unbroken connection between rooms indicates vast open spaces, which are perfect for diffusing natural light through various living areas. Several separate rooms and tiny areas will virtually always make a house seem cramped and dark.

If you’re not sure where to start with your home design to maximize natural light, a Denver window installation company can discuss ways to optimize light flow that suits your living space perfectly.

Connection Between Indoors and Outdoors

Crafting an effortless flow between indoor and outdoor spaces provides a range of benefits. Large patio doors let you double your living space, permitting light to stream through the entire area. Even if the doors are closed, the huge expanse of glass will guarantee sunlight can still come into the interior and get deep into the center of the home.

Light and Color

Don’t underestimate the power of the right shade of paint as a part of your goal to boost the natural light in your residence. You’d be amazed at how efficient it can be. For example, painting the eaves around your roof white can help boost the effects of natural light. It mirrors the light and spreads it more equally.

When selecting what color to paint walls, choose bright colors. Pastels and whites are excellent choices for producing an open and roomy setting since they reflect light. Moreover, high-gloss paint generates a mirror-like effect and reflects more light. And when you offset matte finishes with high gloss, you form depth and contrast, making the space appear open and brighter.

Using a light color or white to paint the ceiling is an efficient way to reflect light and boost natural light in a room, making it appear spacious.

Don’t forget the little touches too. Integrating highly reflective tiles or glass in the bathroom or kitchen could heighten light reflection. The reflective surfaces will move the natural light around the room, making it feel vibrant and bright.

Ambient Lighting

Obviously, when the sun goes down, you’ll need something to replace it. Something that won’t disturb your circadian rhythms. A soft light that informs your body that it’s nighttime and your body needs to wind down. This is where ambient lighting comes into play.

In contrast to vivid overhead lighting, ambient lighting is indirect, and soft, and provides light without disturbing your circadian cycle. It offers you plenty of light to live by and creates a cozy and warm environment.

This could be accomplished with the use of lamps, ceiling fixtures, and more. By merging artificial and natural lighting, you could form a space that is perfectly functional and lit all day long.

Skylights

Using skylights is an effective approach to inviting in natural light. Skylights have the same amount of glazing as a medium window and aren’t likely to cast shadows from external objects.

Ready to Discuss How to Maximize Natural Lighting in Your Home?

In summary, there isn’t any negative about adding more natural light when designing your home. Maximizing the benefits of natural lighting in your residence is not only good for your well-being and health, but also plays a part in promoting a welcoming and relaxing home.

JDI Windows has been in the business of helping Denver homeowners get more natural light into their homes since 1997. Our team brings the same level of workmanship to every project, guaranteeing you receive the windows you serve. Contact us by phone or fill out the contact form on our website to schedule a free consultation.