Natural daylight is becoming a much more popular method of bringing additional illumination into the home because it not only improves the aesthetic value of your interiors, but it can bring about many additional benefits for your mental health and overall physical well-being.
It can also help to reduce your electricity costs and improve your productivity throughout the day as the warm familiar glow of outdoor sunlight beams in through your windows and creates an inviting atmosphere in your ho me.
There is a wide array of reasons to make natural daylight part of your home’s architectural design and whether you need to make some adjustments to your current floor plan or you’re considering a remodel of the home, here are five of the most compelling reasons to let more of the sun shine in.
1. Increased Room Size
Dark, stuffy rooms often appear smaller because less of the area is visible to the naked eye at first glance. But that can all be avoided by allowing more sunlight to enter the room and one of the best ways to do that is to rely on reflective surfaces to bounce the light into every corner of that room.
Brighter rooms give off an appearance of increased size, so if you’re looking to use natural daylight as a way to make any room appear larger, place a mirror or two in front of the largest windows.
In addition, you can use reflective flooring and furniture to get that extra gleam for even more natural daylight. Choose polished woods, ceramics, and other bright surfaces to help you harness the sun’s natural shine.
2. Lower Electric Bills
When you don’t turn on your lights, you’re not using that electricity and if you’re looking to lower your energy costs, then natural daylight is the best solution.
After you’ve placed all of those reflective surfaces in your room, you should be bouncing more natural light from one end to the other, reducing the need to turn on any additional lights. Studies have determined that an increased reliance on natural sunlight to illuminate a room during the daytime hours can have a significant effect on your electricity use.
Consumers have saved an average of 25 to 50 percent on their electricity bills all because they decided to incorporate more natural daylight into the lighting scheme of their home.
So if your home has large windows, open them up and let the sun come in and help you pay less in energy costs from month to month. But be sure you’re allowing as much sun to enter as possible, this might require you to prune or trim the trees and other foliage hanging outside and filtering that sunlight before it gets through your windows.
3. Mental and Emotional Benefits
Let’s be honest, if we could all work or play outside all day, we’d be in a much better frame of mind. So you may not be able to go outdoors and enjoy the sun overhead, but you can certainly bring it inside to where you are.
When your environment is brighter and more uplifting, that can also have a direct effect on your disposition. No one wants to be stuck in a dark environment dominated by harsh artificial lights all day. The body’s natural reaction to sunlight affects your mood and it can make your feel more optimistic about your life and everything around you.
We don’t all get enough sleep, certainly not as much as we need, but sitting in a room illuminated by bright sunlight can help your body feel energized and ready to tackle anything.
4. The Healthy Choice
Natural sunlight isn’t just good for the mind and soul, it can also help you live a healthier life. That’s because sunlight provides much needed vitamins B and D and other influential healing abilities to make the body’s internal systems work harder for improved functionality.
Sunlight has been shown to increase energy and stimulate the organs as well as your white blood cell count. It’s also a good way to naturally boost the immune system.
Allowing more sunlight to shine down on your home’s surfaces can also reduce the growth of bacteria and other harmful organisms so that you aren’t living with and breathing in these potentially toxic contaminants.
5. Greater Productivity
When your body and mind are working at peak performance, then you can be more productive to get everything accomplished through your day. Healthy doses of natural daylight are ideal for regulating your circadian rhythms, which are critical for maintaining enough energy to get through the day.
Now that you know how beneficial natural daylight can be in your home, you may want to check to see if you have the right windows installed. If you feel like your home’s windows could use some repairs or replacing, talk to Renewal by Andersen of Northern Arizona to see what options you have for increasing the amount of natural daylight you can bring in for you and your family to enjoy.
