You know, I just noticed that photo 5 above illustrates exactly what the Greenhouse Cap and White-sheeting idea can do (see on Homepage the Brainstorm Tutorial entries). On May 21, '06, Dan wrote that in his climate, "heat and intense sunlight have to be mitigated," and "more diffuse, indirect light" is needed.
Yes! With the Greenhouse Cap and seasonal changes (see "Seasonal Details" under "Posts") one can change every clear skylight into a customized diffused-light skylight in just a few minutes! See photo 5. When it is no longer needed for the season, in just a few minutes every skylight can be transformed to a clear skylight once again for lovely sky views. Each skylight can have its own custom level of light transmission or insulation that can be changed with very little effort. Not something one would do every day, but seasonally - like cleaning out an air filter.
You CAN have it both ways; save money by providing more natural light and heat gain, or less, or none, depending on the season. If a pre-Cap skylight proves problematic due to wrong positioning and allows in, or out, too much heat or light, no need to rip it out and compromise the integrity of your roof -- just close it off with insulated panels and you can change your mind or tweak it to your satisfaction at any time, yes, even during a blizzard or a monsoon!
That's the beauty of the Greenhouse Cap. If you have built a Cap suitable code-wise for your local wind and snow load conditions, it will provide all the protection you need to do any changes to any of the skylights at any time. Hot day? The solar-powered automatic/manual greenhouse-style vent windows should be open, the automatic/manual vent fans on, wear a sun hat. Freezing rain? Dress warmly, but you won't get wet.
That is a huge advantage over clearstorys, which can be changed only at great cost, and if you try hanging a vertical shade on the outside, where it is thermally effective, you run into wind problems. If you install electric shutters on your clearstorys, what happens when the electricity fails? Useless.
If more brainpower were put into finding sustainable, human scale solutions for all sorts of problems, our cultures wouldn't be running into the increasing vulnerability of a technological point-of-no-return.
