Sky lights or sky lantern in kitchen extension

[Rascal79]

Hi

We are going to be knocking down a wall between our kitchen and lounge and then building a four metre extension along the back of the house with some sort of glass doors I expect. My question is do we have a pitched roof and skylights on the extension or a flat roof and lantern on it???

What do you think from a visual point of view and also from a economical and insulation point of view???

If the room is likely to get very hot - for example if it faces south or there will be lots of steam from cooking - then skylights/veluxes may be better as they can be opened wide very easily (you can get electronic motors to do it if you want). You can get lanterns with bits that open but it's more expensive and you tend not to get as much openable window as with veluxes.

A flat roof is also likely to be higher maintenance/more prone to leaks than a sloping one. And the lantern will be more expensive than the skylight option I reckon.

Having said all that, I prefer the look of a flat roof and lantern...

We went for rooflights to a pitched roof in the end although our plans showed the flat roof and lantern. I have put pics on my profile if you'd like to see.

The roof space around was generously filled with insulation which helps keep the extension warm (its north facing)

If you can see the french doors can I recommend my favourite feature? We put glass with integrated blinds in (they are closed in the picture). No more worries about what sort of curtains to have over the french doors/windows

We did an extension with a rooflight [from reflex] and a flat roof.As we have an old house we thought this would look better.We have a 3 by 2 metre lantern -and i love it.I sit there and watch the bullfinches in the tree above and the tree creeper going up and down.Our flat roof is grp with 'mock lead-look' mop head rolls and scalloped edging .Although our room is south facing we only have one vent,as we have french doors that can be opened for extra ventilation.We did have skylights put into our old pantry, and they are useful for bringing in light,but i would always go for the lantern option.We even put a smaller one in the utility[as there was a sale on at the time].

I love our roof lantern; it opens up the whole space, and I like being able to see the sky. It's down to personal choice though.
Ours is never too hot, but it does attract flies. I'm not sure a pitched roof and opening velux windows would do that.

we have three veluxes in a south facing shallow pitch roof
we love them
the sunlight moves around the room every day and all year