Here Comes the Sun: Why Skylights are the Future for Roofers

By Cass Jacoby. 

RCS interviews SunOptics LIVE! at FRSA about how to take advantage of natural daylight. 

RoofersCoffeeShop® sat down with Daylight Sales Manager Representative for Sunoptics® Michael Felan and Vice President of Business Development at SunOptics Grant Grable for a conversation on their skylights. 

SunOptics is a skylight manufacturer, known for creating the first prismatic plastic skylight. Grant tells COO Karen Edwards about how passive solar lighting that comes from skylights can help your building properly diffuse and disperse light for the most amount of hours, creating an even better energy efficiency because you are using solar itself to light the building. 

“Our whole premise is around energy efficiency. In fact, the original statement for the business was, for an energy independent America through daylighting,” says Grant. “Daylighting is, and what we focus on is, top lighting through the roof. We only need a small percentage of the roof to be able to bring in light for as much as eight to ten hours per day, replacing all the electric light need.” 

Grant also adds that so many large retailers choose their skylights because on top of adding energy efficiency to the building, their skylights are designed to be hail resistant and meet Florida building code for hurricane zones. 

“The highest rating is class four — that can withstand a two-inch hail ball,” says Grant. “We even go to the point of many times when we meet with customers, we take a little version of the skylight and a three-pound sledgehammer and encourage them to hit it as much as they want. Hard as you can.” 

Durability and efficiency are a powerhouse combination that has been at the root of SunOptic’s success for the past 45 years. At FRSA, they showcased their signature model display and featured their metal type skylight.  

“We do have a good portfolio of skylights that we do offer from our regular signature series to our smoke vents...EZY Curb and things like that,” says Michael. He adds that the EZY Curb System features more usable light over fiberglass panels, while eliminating hot spots, glare and UV damage while boasting unmatched durability using polycarbonate or impact-modified acrylic. 

With so many new incentives like the Energy Performance Act of 2006, now more than ever is the time to take advantage of the opportunities and tax incentives that come with adding skylights to your roofing portfolio.  

Learn more about Sunoptics in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit sunoptics.acuitybrands.com.

About Cass  

Cass works as a reporter/writer for RoofersCoffeeShop, AskARoofer and MetalCoffeeShop. When she isn’t writing about roofs, she is putting her Master degree to work writing about movies and dancing with her plants.