bathroom skylight

[wiredgeorge]

We have a bathroom that is about 4' wide and 5' long in our camper. It is behind a closed door. There is a vent with fan and a skylight above the "bathtub". There is no A/C or heat vents in this bathroom and the door stays closed because heat from the skylight and vent cover warm the camper when we have the A/C on. I installed the darkest skylight cover I could find (looks black from the outside) but that skylight really warms the bathroom in the summer. The outside skylight is lexan.

Anyone else have this issue? I am not sure it would be a great idea to put something in the skylight such as we put in the vent above the kitchen area... one of those 14x14" pillow looking things that insulate and have reflective facing outwards. I see they make these pillow things for skylights but would be concerned by the additional moisture above the tub (shower). Anyone find some way to block some of the heat from a skylight?

[chuckster57]

Last time we encountered crazy heat, I climbed up on the roof and put a beach towel over the skylight. It did help and we do have heat and AC vents in the bathroom.

[flybouy]

We have the same situation in ours. I use a refective foil for the entrance door windows. It doesn't seem to be effected by moisture, I think it turns to steam under that magnifying glass. Attached it with velcro by forcing it up into the contour of the skylight and affixing the velcro to the inside vertical surface of the flange. It works very well for keeping the "heat lamp" off the top of my head but still give me the extra headroom in the shower. Been using it that way for 10 years.

Hope that helps.

[sourdough]

The bathroom skylight has always been a problem to me....but I'm not 6'5"....or even 6'.

Our previous trailer had a clear skylight and I got the idea to put a dark one up there. Seemed to me it just made it hotter, sort of like black covers on the A/Cs. Bought some of that sunscreen mesh you put in car windshields, cut it to size and placed between the 2 layers of the skylight. That helped as much as anything.

In your case I'm wondering if you couldn't drop the inner part of the skylight and cut some Reflectix to go over it and stop the heat from coming in. If cutting off the light that comes thru it presents a problem you might try what the method I described above as it let quite a bit of light still come through. We didn't care if it cut off the light because we have plenty of lights in the bathroom and cutting the heat from the skylight was more important than any light it provided.

[wiredgeorge]

Originally Posted by sourdough

The bathroom skylight has always been a problem to me....but I'm not 6'5"....or even 6'.

Our previous trailer had a clear skylight and I got the idea to put a dark one up there. Seemed to me it just made it hotter, sort of like black covers on the A/Cs. Bought some of that sunscreen mesh you put in car windshields, cut it to size and placed between the 2 layers of the skylight. That helped as much as anything.

In your case I'm wondering if you couldn't drop the inner part of the skylight and cut some Reflectix to go over it and stop the heat from coming in. If cutting off the light that comes thru it presents a problem you might try what the method I described above as it let quite a bit of light still come through. We didn't care if it cut off the light because we have plenty of lights in the bathroom and cutting the heat from the skylight was more important than any light it provided.

Not worried about light but was worried that reflective stuff on top the bottom assembly would cause excessive heat of the lexan upper part. I won't be going onto the roof to toss any towels and it does get windy here in my part of the world so that might not be a good way to deal with it.

[sourdough]

You could try that mesh stuff and see if it did anything for you. As for the Reflectix I doubt it would hurt the outer skylight. We keep it in several windows when in direct sunlight along with the glass in the door. I can't reach the windows but it doesn't seem to do much as far as elevating the heat on the front door window.

[hankpage]

I sandwiched the Reflectix between the domes also. It worked well and it does not lay flat so some of the light gets reflected in but it cuts down on the heat very well. I used Reflectix on the south facing windows between the blinds during storage or very hot weather.

[wiredgeorge]

Will check out Reflectix. Thanks

[RickV]

Originally Posted by hankpage

I sandwiched the Reflectix between the domes also. It worked well and it does not lay flat so some of the light gets reflected in but it cuts down on the heat very well. I used Reflectix on the south facing windows between the blinds during storage or very hot weather.

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

Will check out Reflectix. Thanks

I haven't used it in the skylight but, we have pieces cut for every window. It does wonders on stopping the heat especially on the front picture window. I have used one of those laser temperature guns and without the Reflectix have seen as high as 120 degrees with the sun beating on it, with the Reflectix under the same conditions around 90 degrees. And the great thing is it is not that expensive.

[JRTJH]

I installed a piece of "non-slip shelf liner" (the type that looks like lace and comes in a variety of colors in the kitchen section of WalMart). I used a light tan, to reflect some heat, but the holes allow about half the light to still enter the bathroom. I pulled the interior plastic dome and laid the shelf lilner over the surface, taped it in several places so it stayed in place and reinstalled the dome.

The shelf liner cuts out almost all the glare and you can stand in the shower without feeling the heat gain through the skylight. It worked for us, even in Las Vegas in June, to keep the bathroom cool and it does not "close off the bathroom making it dark".... It's been there for about 5 or 6 years with no problems. Works for us, may work for you too.

I've still got most of the roll of non-slip shelf liner and we've used it in a lot of the cupboards in the trailer to keep things in place.

[jxnbbl]

Nice idea on the "shade". This last year we had some hot camping with little shade and ran into this problem....after one day I went to a local Camping World and bought those "vent pillows" and put them in the vents when we left with the AC set (higher temp then when occupied). They actually worked great. We started using them in the areas that we don't use as often all day.

[mgrote]

I cut a piece of plexiglass and put dark, heat reflection window tint on the plexiglass then put Velcro on the 2 long sides to hold it in place. Can be removed when hot weather passes, it still gets warm against the glass when you shower during the day but not unbearable. We’re in arizona and getting up to 115 during the day, the cold water is no longer cold so the shower is always warm regardless. I did the same thing in the kitchen skylight with plexiglass so it would block the heat but not loose the sunlight and be like a cave inside.

[Mikelff]

Another trick is to use solar screening if you would still like some light. Cut to fit and use some velcro or other adhesive solution to hold it in place. I have made solar screen covers for my windows that attach with some strong velcro on the outside of the windows. Keeps the glass cooler and really cuts down on heat radiating in through the windows. They roll up and go in the basement when I travel. Only takes a couple minutes to put them up. They hold amazingly well in a good wind. There is a topic/discussion on how to do this on the Montana site. I can still see out the windows but significantly cuts down on heat. One of my best projects to cut down heat in the 5er. Significantly cuts down cool down time when first setting up in hot weather. Reflectix works great but blocks your view and really increases the heat of your window glass if mounted from the inside. If the window glass gets hot enough it can shatter. That window glass is extremely expensive. If you are going to use Reflectix, I would mount it on the outside of the window glass.

[Steve d]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

I installed a piece of "non-slip shelf liner" (the type that looks like lace and comes in a variety of colors in the kitchen section of WalMart). I used a light tan, to reflect some heat, but the holes allow about half the light to still enter the bathroom. I pulled the interior plastic dome and laid the shelf lilner over the surface, taped it in several places so it stayed in place and reinstalled the dome.

The shelf liner cuts out almost all the glare and you can stand in the shower without feeling the heat gain through the skylight. It worked for us, even in Las Vegas in June, to keep the bathroom cool and it does not "close off the bathroom making it dark".... It's been there for about 5 or 6 years with no problems. Works for us, may work for you too.

I've still got most of the roll of non-slip shelf liner and we've used it in a lot of the cupboards in the trailer to keep things in place.

Wow, I did the same thing. Took it off the shelves as it just wrinkled up when we slid anything on it anyway. Great repurpose of that stuff,blocks 80% heat and not too much light in the shower.

[rlh1957]

We use the insulated/reflective pillow in shower and on vent fan when bright/hot/cold out. But remove them when shower is in use or uding the exhaust fan to help dry out damp.

[Andymil]

I painted mine white. I went up on the roof and masked the skylight and used a can of Krylon gloss white. It cut the heating significantly and still let some light in, but I was not able to get a uniform coating of paint. It looked okay from the outside but from the inside it looked uneven.
After some time, the paint had some small nicks and scratches from acorns and sticks.
It did work, but not a perfect solution.

[KarenK]

I used car tint window film, taped it over the top of the inside skylight. Previously I had a reflectix shade stuck with velcro to the shower skylight from the bottom. The inner shoud had cracked being old and dry, and most of the screws were put in at a 45 degree angle (hole cut too big).

Bought new inner shoud, glued and stapled a couple pieces of the large wood paint stir sticks into the opening. Was able to screw the new one in straight and the window tint cuts about half the light and much of the extra heat. The roll of film was big enough to add a 2nd layer if needed.