With some minor tweaks in the home design and making some smart choices in choosing roofing materials, you can save tons of money on energy bills and improve the looks of your home - both at the same time. For instance, installing polycarbonate skylight systems will give provide free sunlight all day long and save you on lighting bills. But there are other smart (and often very minor) changes you can do with your architectural plan to make your abode highly efficient and green. Interested? Let’s begin.

Skylights

This is among the most common used daylighting technique, partly because it is so easy to implement even in an old house, and partly because it is very cheap to get semi-assembled skylight systems right from stores. Skylights have a transparent (or frosted) sheet of glass or polycarbonate that channels the light into the room. And more importantly these are very easy repair, remove and replace with new ones just as easily. Skylights can be designed in many other formations. Some of the most popular designs are awning, casements, hopper, tilt & turn and dome.

Solar Tubes

If you need to get the light from the roof to a room that is at a lower level, traditional skylights will not work because the reach of light from roof top skylights diffuses very easily. This can be remedied with solar tubes. These are basically reflective surfaces in a tubular configuration that let light bounce off internally within the tube thereby reducing diffusion and keeping the bright enough to reach lower levels within the house. Solar tubes are partly skylights at the top where it allows sunlight through. Past that there is a tubular reflective surface.

Reflective Roofing Surfaces

In summers, when the sun is too hot, your house becomes very hot. Traditional roofing materials cannot fend off the sun’s heat. Even with proper insulation, heat keeps seeping in through the roof. One effective way to keep the heat out is to install reflective roofing surface. With less heat to dissipate, your air conditioner will run more efficiently and keep your energy bills low.

Staying cool during summers and efficient lighting does not have to be expensive. Just as we have shown here, a few simple architectural considerations will save you money on lighting.