Category: Skylights

The 16metres by 2.5metres window to the Sky!

Taking Measurements and Getting Quotes for our Triple Glazing Windows in Skylight
We spent the last three days measuring all our Skylight windows so that we can send off for quotations for creating triple glazing units. Now that we have built our new working platform, it meant that we could get the whole job done in one go without interruptions.
We decided that we would use lots of thin insulation boards that we had left-over and proceeded to cut a ‘template’ for each individual window in turn. We found some slightly thicker boards, measuring 40mm thick and also very flat as well, so we could test to how easy, or difficult, it was in moving the template into place, avoiding the various obstacles like the steel cross ties etc.
The proposed triple glazing units are currently selected to be using 4mm thick glass panes with 16mm cavities which makes an overall 44mm in depth. Our 40mm template is a good size to test the installation of the real thing later on, the heaviest glazing unit being at around 40kg each.
Happily, we can report that all 22 windows passed this particular test with flying colours!
Another reason for using a thick foam board, is to also find out to how ‘flat’ our wooden framework is up there in our Skylight that we built all those years ago. The PU foam material is quite stiff and we can detect whether the pseudo glazing unit template sits rock steady or wiggles.
Generally speaking, the majority of each window hole was pretty damn close to being flat and we will be able to get away in using only 3mm or 5mm thick sticky foam tape for the first stage of sealing the units into place. Only one window had a serious wobble, caused by a break in our framing timber. We will have to do some tidy up of the joint and recondition it so it is back to the same original coatings of fibre glass resin.
After the 40mm foam was close to the right size (fits with a little ‘slop’), we made a copy onto 20mm foam and measured and labelled it and inserted it into the skylight. It was quite slow in getting each window done, we didn’t want to rush it as it will cost many £1000s for the windows, especially the triangular ones, four of them at each end of the Skylight.

Each template is numbered & measured

The list of our windows breaks down into these quantity and approximate sizes:
- Great Room: 4 triangles measuring about 1150mm high by 1100mm wide and 2 rectangular – 1120mm high by 1190mm wide
- Sitting Room: 5 rectangular – 1120mm high by 966mm wide
- Stairs/ Hall: 2 rectangular – 1150mm high by 750mm wide (one of these is a special shape!)
- Study: 2 rectangular – 1145mm high by 1066mm wide
- Work Room: 3 rectangular – 1145mm high by 996mm wide 4 triangular ? about 1140mm high by 1110mm wide
Skylight glazing

To measure the triangular templates we created a tool from aluminium bars which could hold against all 3 sides and measure the correct size of each edge (the foam is too soft/crumpled to measure directly)

The Triangle Templates

Measuring Triangles 1

Measuring Triangles 2

We have sent a request for a quote off to our local manufacturer, based in Norwich. We wait to see what they can do.

We have requested that the outer pane of glass is treated with the infra-red reflective and absorbing treatment so we can reduce the sheer amount of heat that we get during the Summer months! Hopefully, it won’t be too expensive. We will have to have safety glass in one way or another but we may be able to have a lowest pane to be laminated and the other two higher panes can be ordinary glass, to save money of not having it made with toughened glass. We now wait and see ! This expenditure will be the last major outlay for the basic building structure and materials.
26 July 2023
Installing Third String of Solar Panel up Inside Skylight

We started the new week by tackling the next phase of installing our green solar capture schemes, this time, the third string of panels, basically almost square shaped ones, measuring 1200mm by 900mm, small enough to fit up inside our eleven Skylight windows. Each of these windows which we had originally designed 10 years ago, measures 1040mm wide by 1200mm high. We had always intended to have solar electric cells put in these windows. We had originally inteneded to make our own solar panel from individual cells, but we realised that we could buy fully constructed panels for a reasonable price not much more than the raw parts, plus also we would not have to run the risk of not being able to make long lasting and reliable finished modules either.
The first job was to measure all eleven windows and most of them were 1040mm wide, but one or two were slightly bigger and one or two were even a little bit smaller (measuring 1034mm wide). Then, we thoroughly washed the glass (actually polycarbonate plastic) with warm soapy water with a floor mop! We also washed down the framework too so it is ready for the glue to stick down the CLS timber we are going to apply.
We then cut twenty-two lengths of 63mm, measuring 1195mm long CLS timber, with a 15degree angled ends and drilled two clearance holes through the wider direction in each piece. We applied a line of glue and proceeded to screw each piece using 100mm 6mm thick screws. This CLS timber will provide the anchorage for holding the actual solar panel themselves in place.

Skylight-solar-panel-frame

The CLS timber will almost fill up the gap and block the sunshine from getting through to the insulation boards that will sit behind each solar panel, leaving a small gap that we will allow the air to circulate in and around the panel to keep it cool and ensure that we evaporate any condensation of water that may form on the glass. Each of the eleven window with its solar panel, will have fresh air piped in from our main air conditioning system so we can provide some cooling energy to the panel themselves, especially during the hot Summers, which will improve the efficiency of the silicon wafers converting the solar energy into electricity.

We then put small pieces of double sticky foam on all four corners of each solar panel modules, sticking 100mm long pieces onto the metal frame and this will provide a reasonable air gap between the panel and the glass surface, and also we drilled three holes through the metal framework on both sides of each panel sideways, so we can screw the panel in place, using our mushroom headed stainless screws, up in the Skylight window and press up against the plastic surface. We even stuck on two small pads of 6mm MDF material so we ensure another air gap at the top of the panel, again to allow the air to circulate etc.

Most-skylight-panel-fitted

Next task was to plumb in a conduit from inside our Tech Cupboard, up into the ceiling, through the floorboard, up the steel leg and terminate right up inside the Skylight near the top.
This will provide the path for our five pairs of 2.5mm square millimetre copper wires, coming from the eleven Solar Panels, grouped into five sets. We decided that we will have a sequence of one panel on a pair of wires, then followed by a group of four panels joined together in series and connected to another pair of wires. After that one, is another single panel on a third pair of wires, followed again by another group of four panels on the fourth pair of wires and finally the last single panel on a fifth pair of wires. All the wires were fed up from inside the Tech Cupboard and went off to each of these set of panels.

Skylight-solar-cables-in-Tech-cupboard

We did it that way so we could configure different combinations of connecting the panels together, to provide the maximum conversion of solar to different target battery voltages. We are wanting to charge our 12Volt battery but also want to charge our 50Volt packs too. in fact, for the time being, we would like to take all the output of all eleven solar panels if it is possible and convert all the energy into our 50Volt packs and maximise the benefit of avoiding having to pay these ridiculous grid electricity prices.

Now we needed to make a front panel to mount the solar charging equipment, the switches and the fuses too. We found a piece of plywood left-over piece from when we were doing the staircase, a lovely quality of 18mm plywood, measuring 345mm wide. We sliced off a length of 1070mm long so it can fit right across the Tech Cupboard, mounted in a vertical direction and facing outwards, and sitting on top of the Battery Cabinet. This front panel will have a distribution fuse box starting on the left end, to provide low-voltage (both 50V and 12V) fused protection for various pieces of equipment in our Tech Cupboard like network hubs and fileservers etc. Then are the two solar charger modules next on the front panels and finally another distribution box that will have two isolation switches and more fused connections coming from the solar panels themselves. We drilled a load of access holes to allow the various wires through to join into these modules. We also sliced two rectangular narrow slots behind the two solar chargers, to allow fresh air to blow on the cooling fins that runs top to bottom on the back of the units.

We also took the lid of the Battery Cabinet, which we hadn’t processed yet, and cut that down to size to fit in between the walls and the steel leg. We decided that we needed to also slice the whole lid in half, down the length so that we had a more permanent section at the back and still have the front half removable for any future adjustments or modifications inside the Battery Cabinet itself. Our new front panel will sit on the back shelf piece some 50mm inwards and is screwed upwards to join the two pieces together.

Then, we painted all three pieces in our black paint to match the rest of the Cabinet.

Solar-Equipment-panel

While the paint dries, we got on in making covers to put over the new Solar Panels up in our Skylight so that we both keep the dust out, but also, to provide a sealed chamber so we can pump in fresh cool air at the bottom of the window and suck the warmer waste air out at the top. These covers are made using 6mm MDF sheets, cut down to just fit inside the Skylight rafters, the height being 1210mm long and the width being set to 1030mm as a minimum so it can fit in all the skylight windows. Two 50mm air holes were drilled into the left bottom corner and then diagonally at the top right corner and also we drilled two 20mm holes in the lower middle point to allow the electric cables to come through from the Solar Panel. We found that it is a tight squeeze to get these covers in place so we decided to slice every board in half and it was so much easier to tackle the problem of installing these covers. Each had three screws put in on each edge. Finally, we covered up the holes with aluminium tape and also sealed the bottom and top edges with a line of spray foam so we keep the dust away from the solar panels.

Skylight-solar-cover-panels-fitted

Finally, we wired up all the equipment that now have been mounted to our freshly painted front panel, connecting the five individual groups of the solar panels into the switch bank and then wired in the isolation switches from the solar chargers themselves. We then installed this front panel on top of the Battery Cabinet and screwed it into place and connected it to the 50Volt bus bar, plus also all the cables coming down from the Skylight were connected into the top side of the bank of switches. We now have a working third string of solar panels!

Solar-Eqipment-fitted

Skylight-solar-charger-working

Today, we collected 4kWh worth of energy but we do need to go outside and climb up onto the roof, to clean the Skylight windows as they have several years of accumulated grime. We will do a test of cleaning half the windows and then flip between the two halves and find out how much difference it might make to our Solar power collected.

That pretty much concludes everything to do with our Solar, the electrical version for now, we got a thermal one to tackle sometime in the future. We will now get on with installing extra insulation into our temporary living quarters, to help reduce our electricity burden!

18 October 2022
Skylight Unveiled!
This morning, under a cloudy sky, we unveiled our spanking brand new Skylight to the world!! We went and pulled off all the final protective cling film coverings off the polycarbonate panes!! It had a layer of water from the morning dew so we got rather wet!

Skylight-Revealed-1

Skylight-Revealed-2

Skylight-Revealed-3

This concludes the job of putting up our Skylight. Here is a breakdown of our timesheet on the various aspect of the task of creating this skylight module:
- 30 working days to build the framework and paint it
- 16 working days to install the framework and the glaze it
We started at the beginning of August and finished today on the 6th October, with a total of 46 working days spent on the Skylight!
Here is a super-fast time elapsed video of the skylight being installed.
6 October 2018
Ridge Bar All Rain Protected and Bird Disruptor Created and Installed

We carried on making the second of the two special end caps for the ridge bar, shaped to cover over the five rafters all coming into one point at the end of the central ridge bar. After filing and rubbing the edges smooth, we then sprayed them both with several layers of metal white paint and, to speed up the process, put them into our oven at 50°C to dry them quickly.
Meanwhile, we took up the white rain guard covers for the ridge bar and using the two longest lengths, we fitted them at each end (making a clearance hole for the threaded rod) and loosely fitted them. We weren’t ready to snap them down just yet. The next piece was measured to meet (and go just beyond) the middle threaded rod position but we discovered that about 1metre (3feet) was slightly distorted at one end and when it met its sibling piece, they were obviously mismatching.
So after lunch, we decided to used a another piece of the rain cover, left over piece from doing our fourth and final piece and replace the ‘damaged’ section with a fresh and clean piece. It now aligns up very nicely!
Then we went along the whole length of the ridge bar and using a pair of pliers, we twisted very slightly the metal edge at every 500mm, this edge being what locks the rain cover down. It was too loose and then bends make it tight (we had to hammer it in place!), we don’t know whether it is a design flaw or the manufacturer expected us to do the trick of ‘denting’ the metal edge, we don’t know? shrug shoulders!
Now we were ready to apply the white PU sealant to the end caps (these were screwed into place) and then proceeded to snap the rain guard covers into place for the final time. The joints had some further white sealant applied and this included around the holes that had the threaded rod poking through too.

Skylight-construction-complete

Next, we returned to our workshop to create our Bird Disruptor (We have noticed the bird’s really liked perching on the skylight so we decided to add some deterrent in the form of 3 fine wires stretched just above the ridge to give birds a scare when they try and land on the ridge) . We made three 200mm long supports, using stainless steel angle iron and then drilled one big central hole (for the 10mm threaded rod) and another three tiny holes (for the thin wires) and cut half way through one flange at 66mm (third the way in from the ends) and this allowed us to bend the piece with a 15degrees angle, to follow the slope of the roof. After grinding and rubbing all the edges and corners, to make it smoother and softer, we then took them up to install it on our skylight, along with three length’s of 1mm thick stainless steel twisted wire and stainless steel nuts and washers to clamp them into place on the three threaded rods.

Bird-deterent-system-One-End

Bird-deterent-system-Middle-support

Bird-deterent-system-Other-end

Tomorrow, we will then do the final ‘grand reveal’ by going along and pulling off the last of the protective cling film covers on the polycarbonate panes and give everything a clean and polish to make it sparkle! Hopefully we will have some good sunny weather!

5 October 2018
All Rafters Now Covered with the White Rain Guard

This morning, we finished off the last three rafters on the right hand end of the Skylight (two diagonals and a straight) and put on the last four aluminium edge protection strips too.
We were interrupted by two deliveries, one for the fibreglass valley channels (16 lengths of 3metres each) and the second delivery was for a dozen sheets of materials (some 18mm OSB, 15mm plywood, 10mm cement board and a 12mm high grade plywood)
After lunch, we went around all 33 rafters, putting a line of white PU sealant at the top end where they met the ridge metal bar and then snapped on the white rain guard and applied another line of sealant. That took about an hour or so.

Joints-sealed

Covers-on-rafter-bars

The rest of the afternoon was spent designing and making another rain guard cap but this time for the two ends of the ridge bar. We first built a wooden mock-up model of the ridge metal bar with all its neighbouring rafters coming in like a star and then using a piece of cardboard, we cut and bent it into a three angled shape so it will fit into the end and provide protection from the rain.

Cardboard-model-of-cap

Cap-half-made

Rain-cap-for-end-of-ridge-1

Rain-cap-for-end-of-ridge-2

We managed to make one today and we will make the second one tomorrow, give them several spray coats of white metal paint and then get the whole Skylight finished with the installation of the rain guard covers along the central ridge bar including the two custom made end caps!

4 October 2018
The Two Ends of Skylight Almost All Done

We resumed the work of completing the two ends of the Skylight today, we had our four triangular pieces ready for installation, after the overnight job of gluing on the protection edge strips, for the Great Room end. These four plastic glazing panes, along with three rafter bars (one straight and two diagonal ones) were taken up and installed into place. The diagonal ones had to have two 45degrees slices cut off the top end (like an arrow head) before they could fit snugly into place.

P-End-Glazing-complete

After lunch, we started on the other end of the Skylight and proceeded to slice up the final two square sheets of the polycarbonate material into the last four triangular pieces, this time, it was a little more complicated because we have a little kink in the Skylight and this end has a twisted “skewed” arrangement of the rafters. We managed to get the measurements all sorted and duly arrived with our cut pieces which went straight up on the roof, clearance holes drilled and fitted into position. We ran late so we could get these last four “windows” finished which only the three rafter metal bars to do in the morning.

H-End-Windows-fitted

Tomorrow, we will do those rafter bars and then start applying more sealant around all the joints between all the metal parts and then snap on the white rain covers with more sealant to provide multiple layers of protection against rainwater getting in.

3 October 2018
Ridge Bar Complete and First Four Triangular Glazing Panes Cut

We finished off the installation of the Ridge bar this morning. The last section, the fourth one, was 4.494 metres long and we now have a complete ridge clamping down all the 25 windows (13 on the front and 12 on the back) with a total length of 13.5metres long.

Ridge-complete

Then we got down to the complicated process of measuring the triangular framework so we could cut the polycarbonate sheet into the required shape and size. We started on the Great Room end of the Skylight and using our large framing square, to validate the assumption that the framework was indeed “right angled” and that we could and did take measurements of the vertical distance and the horizontal direction too but we also had a long straight aluminium “ruler” where we could verify the hypotenuse length when we transferred the numbers to our polycarbonate sheet. Using a long guide bar, clamped down and we carefully cut the plastic with our battery circular saw. We took the first one back up for a test fit and .. it fitted!
We repeated this over again for the next three cuts and we now have four triangular pieces!
They all then had their six clearance holes drilled into them and the protection metal edge strip glued, ready for these four to be installed tomorrow.
The last little task was to measure and cut the middle rafter bar to length and screw on its end cap, also ready for tomorrow.
So in the morning, we will do that and then deal with the two diagonal rafter bars which has to have a double angled edges taken off them to fit into the correct position .. all very fiddly work!

2 October 2018
Back of Skylight Glazing Completed and Ridge Bar Almost All Done

This morning we continued with the job of installing the glazing panes along the back of the Skylight and we now have 25 out of the total of 33 “windows” completed. It is just the two ends that have four triangular shaped windows in each to do and we would have the whole thing done.
After lunch, we went around putting in all the other stainless steel fixing screws in the rafter bars before tackling the installation of the central ridge. We approached the task by doing the two ends first where we had to get a 13mm clearance hole in the exact position so the threaded stainless diameter steel rod will poke though without binding up. We also had to chop off a small damaged section of the aluminium extruded bar (it looks likely for the “accident” happened during manufacturing) but we had plenty to work with. We finished off the day with fitting the third ridge bar which came up to the central threaded rod. The joint was coated in white sealant to ensure a waterproof connection.

Main-glazing-complete-most-of-ridge-installed

Mostly-glazed

Tomorrow, we will do the fourth and last section of the ridge bars and then start work on doing those more complex triangular windows!

Here’s an extra video showing the fitting of one window in real time!

1 October 2018
Half of the Glazing Completed on Skylight

On this glorious sunny day, we started the job of taking up the glazing panes up to our Skylight! But we had to finish off a single special job of slicing one of the plastic panes, the one over the staircase which needed a 13mm thin wedge shaped strip taken off. Then the next job was to insert a pair of rubber strips to all our Rafter bars, all 25 of them. Then we lifted up the polycarbonate plastic panes, starting off with the front set (labelled from 1 to 13) by using a rope and suction pad handle unit, to pull each piece one at a time and they rested in place (fortunately, we had no wind today!). We then dealt with them one by one, positioning them with an overhang of 65mm, centred on the to edges and then screwed down. The plastic has 2 protective films on it, we removed the inner one before fixing them and will remove the outer white film as the last thing we do on the skylight.

First-half-of-glazing-done

We were very pleased with the results, all fitted just nicely and we now have the main set on the front completed. We did two on the back side, just to see how the centre ridge was looking and whether there were plenty of room for the ridge bar to fit, and .. no problems!!

So on Monday, we will continue with the back set of glazing panes, another 10 to do and then install the ridge glazing bar down the middle and finally concentrate on sorting out the two ends which has four triangular shaped glazing units which will be fun to get exactly right!!

29 September 2018
25 Rafter Bars Complete with End caps plus 25 Polycarbonate Panes Prepared

This morning, we finished off the task of fixing the End Caps to the set of rafter bars we are preparing for the first batch, mainly for the whole of both of the front and back sections of the skylight, and just finishing off by drilling clearance holes near the ends of each bar, ready for the stainless steel screws to fix the bars down.
Next, we sliced up the small aluminium U channel pieces into 25 individual items, ready to be attached on the bottom edge of the plastic panes, this will help to stiffen up the fourth edge and help prevent a strong wind to lift up the overhanging portion of the polycarbonate panes and let in rain water into our skylight.
After lunch, we started on the task of drilling holes into the plastic panes, 77mm from the bottom edge, to allow us to clamp down this fourth edge using another aluminium strip that will be screwed into the wooden rim framework.
We made a template to consistently position where to drill these 8mm clearance holes (double the size of the screws to allow for movement in the plastic) and also we glued on the U channel pieces too.

Panels-drilled-for-fixing-and-edge-protected-1

Panels-drilled-for-fixing-and-edge-protected-2

We got 24 of them all done including one of the special ones where we had to take the plastic pane up to the skylight to double check the accuracy and confirm that we needed to slice off 13mm sloping down to 0mm on one edge to fit properly. We got that done before the day ended. This adjustment was needed to accommodate our bent skylight!
On Saturday, we will do the other special one that is part of these main set and then we can start installing these completed unit up onto the skylight – Yippee!

27 September 2018