Adding a skylight to one of your rooms is a great way to introduce natural sunlight into your home — they're the perfect choice if one of the rooms in your home doesn't have enough windows to allow for adequate natural light during the day. If you live in an area without much light pollution, a skylight will also allow you to stargaze during the night. When you're looking for skylight lighting for sale, there are three features that you should search for in order to make sure you're buying the best product. To learn what these features are, read on.

1. Low-Emissivity Glass or Motorized Shades

One of the things you'll need to consider when you add a skylight to your home is its effect on the temperature of the room. Skylights allow beautiful natural light into the room, but that natural sunlight comes along with UV rays that can increase the temperature of the room substantially, especially if you're adding a large skylight. The two ways you can minimize solar heat gain are to purchase a skylight with either low-emissivity glass or motorized shades. Whichever you choose, they'll ensure that your new skylight doesn't make your room too warm.

Low-emissivity glass has a special coating that reflects UV rays from the sun rather than letting them into your home. As a result, indoor temperatures will be much cooler. The low-emissivity coating is completely transparent, so it won't affect your view out of the skylight at all — the only thing it does is reflect ultraviolet light.

Motorized shades will also block UV rays when they're pulled over the skylight. They're controlled with a remote, allowing you to lower them when you're not in the room and raise them when you want to add natural sunlight to the room. A skylight with motorized shades is less convenient than one with low-emissivity glass since you'll need to control the shades manually. However, it's preferable in some situations — if you install a skylight over your bed and want to sleep in during the weekend or take a nap during the day, it's useful to have the ability to block out light by lowering the shades.

2. Solar-Powered Motor

Ventilating skylights are a type of skylight that can open up in order to let air into the room, and one with a solar-powered motor is the best option. A solar-powered skylight is connected to a small solar panel that supplies electricity to the battery that powers the motor.

When adding a new skylight to your home, selecting a solar-powered skylight has the major advantage of not needing to be connected to your home's electrical wiring. Unless they're completely manually operated, other ventilated skylights require your home's electricity in order to open and close. You'll save money on installation costs by eliminating the need to add additional wiring, and you'll also save some money on your energy bill by installing a skylight that's powered only by the sun.

3. High-Quality Seals

Finally, make sure that the skylight you select has high-quality weather seals. The weather seals around the frame of the skylight are what keep rain from leaking through the skylight into your home. While many homeowners are afraid of skylight leaks, you don't need to worry about it when you pick a high-quality skylight with good seals — they'll keep the inside of your home protected from the rain.

Overall, it's worth it to spend the extra money for a solar-powered skylight with additional features to stop solar heat gain, whether it's low-emissivity glass or motorized shades. You'll be able to save on installation costs with a solar-powered skylight, which makes the extra expense worthwhile. Preventing solar heat gain means that your new skylight won't make your air conditioner work harder in order to keep your home cool, which also helps save money in the long run. When you're looking for skylight lighting for sale, these extra features are almost always worth it. 

For more information, contact a local company such as Sky Light Source.