Hi Folks!
I love my 1500 square-foot modified Cape Code, including two skylights, one in the kitchen, and one upstairs.
However, in the summer, they turn into solar death rays, heating the house.
I had bought some "solar window screen" at the home improvement store a few weeks back. The skylight in the upstairs cranks open. The one in the kitchen does not. (Also, the upstairs one is in easy reach, whereas the kitchen one is in a vaulted ceiling.)
The upstairs skylight is a little larger than 3 feet square. The solar screen I bought is 3 feet wide. I cut a length off the roll a little less than three and a half feet.
I opened the skylight, feed the material through, and then shimmied it up over the glass by grabbing it with one hand on either side. I then cranked the skylight shut, pinning the screen in place.
Immediately, I could feel the difference. Essentially, I was now in the shade instead of the sun!
I'm just doing this as a test, but wow, feels better already.
Later, I had to climb up on the roof (for a totally unrelated reason) but I snapped a photo of the outside of the skylight.
The trim and glass are both already dark colored, and the screen seems to blend right in. From the ground, the neighbor's house, or the road, it doesn'y look bad at all!
For orientation, I am crouching on the roof, uphill of the skylight. There is a several inch gap on the TOP of the skylight which isn't covered by the window screen. This is actually good, because it makes the difference between full sun and "sun through the screen" really obvious. (Sort of built in A/B testing or control and experiment.)
In case you are wondering why the screen is on the OUTSIDE of the window, it's to keep the heat OUT. A screen INSIDE the window will also block light, but it will absorb (and then release) the heat INSIDE the house. Let's keep heat OUT of the house in the first place during the summer.
I originally just thought I would do this as a test, and then build some sort of fancy wooden frame, but it really doesn't look bad at all right now. I don't know how wind and rain will effect it. Guess I'll just wait and see.
I would also like to screen the kitchen skylight, but that is much larger, needs to be done from the outside, and I can't just open the window and pinch the screen in there. It will need some sort of framework.