Tired of living out of a pickup and in need of cheep housing, I moved in with an older couple requesting a young college student to assist with chores in exchange for free board and room. I was glad to perform various duties to obtain a better student’s life, especially since a sunroom came with part of that better life.

The sunroom was small, about 20X15 feet, yet it filled the entire kitchen and living room with warmth. The view was spectacular as this lonely ocean-side sunroom took in the Arcata Bay to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Built on a hill above a few coastal redwoods, this sunroom seemed to expose a marriage of ocean and sky. At night you could not tell from where the horizon began or ended. That sunroom inspired a lot of learning with its drawn desire to study. It made me feel good about myself, and you could say it was truly enlightening.

A good sunroom yields the power of the sun. Unparalleled in its regenerative effects, natural light coupled with modern technology and open architecture puts the sun at our feet. And therein lies the key—to fill a home with light.

Natural sunlight feeds the soul. To understand why light does what it does and what a sunroom has done for homeowners in Southern Utah, we need to understand the physics of light.

At one end of the visible spectrum is a low frequency infrared light. You can’t see it but you can feel its warmth. Too much, and everything is hot to the touch since infrared light heats things up. At the other end of the visible spectrum is the high frequency ultraviolet light. You can’t see it either and you can’t feel it. Like microwaves, ultraviolet light cooks by destruction. A simple distinction surfaces in regular tungsten bulbs with an appearance of red, and fluorescent lights casting a blue radiance. Too much UV light has links to skin cancer and can do a number on fabrics. The natural tendency to tan is to protect the skin from such a high frequency. As infrared brings warmth, it can also bring discomfort, perspiration and fatigue. UV light, over time, brings an unfelt damage. Sunroom technology eliminates both substantially. The light that remains is the visible range, or light to see. This is the good medicine for the soul.

Current technology uses krypton gas filling, triple glazing, dual seal silicon, and other elements, such as aluminum and other metals in the glass, to refract the heat of infrared and the damaging effects of ultraviolet. Both the infrared and UV rays stay out in the summer while the internal warmth and energy costs are conserved in the winter. You now can enjoy a sunroom year round, even in the desert, and many residents in hot, dry climates are figuring this out.

Christine Kipiotis and Bessye Coledge, two friends now retired and living in St. George, built a sunroom because they wanted to use their patio more than just a few months of the year. With the comfort of indoor living combined with an outdoor experience, they spend more time enjoying their sunroom playing cards, reading and even napping in the natural light. It is a living space truly lived in. Stewart Awnings, a local Four Seasons retailer, built the room.   

A recent study has found that test scores improved after many college classrooms were remodeled to allow for more sunlight. More and more schools, warehouses, office buildings and homes are now designed to attract more light to improve work performance, reduce costs in lighting and generally improve the living atmosphere. Such light is not limited to a large sunroom design or spacious windows either. A low cost tubular lighting system can bring natural sunlight to any part of the home or office, especially in those dark places in need of light. You can purchase these systems for less than three hundred dollars at any home improvement store, and the installation is not too difficult. A good roofer should be able to drop one in easily.

A favorite sunroom design is the fully enclosed glass room with curved windows. Four Seasons and ABC sunrooms in St. George can build this sunroom and fit the room to any dimensions. Stewart Awnings, a Four Seasons contractor, has a showroom with many models and designs to choose from, and ABC Sunrooms has a booth in the Red Cliffs Mall with a sample sunroom on display and plenty of literature. They both offer a free estimate. Pictured is a home in the Hurricane area with this plan. The plus, according these homeowners, is the ability to enjoy the night stars from within their home. We stood in the room under direct sun and conducted an experiment with a thermometer. The temperature never reached above 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Without the technology to filter out the infrared heat and UV rays, the temperature would have exceeded 110 degrees.  

Proper exposure to the sun’s light has many health benefits, including a lowering of blood pressure; a lowering of the blood cholesterol levels; an increase in the storage of glycogen in the liver; a decrease therefore in blood sugar; and an increase in the general energy, endurance and muscular strength of the entire body. Sunlight has even been connected to improving human emotion, and everyone needs some amount of sunlight everyday or its equivalent to help synthesize vitamin D. What seems to be lacking, and what many are realizing, is the need for more light itself without overexposure.

The trend toward the sunroom has followed a change in architecture. More and more homeowners want more light for many of the reasons mentioned. By carefully designing window specifications and floor plans for commercial or residential construction, architects now contribute to the increased productivity and psychological health of all as they allow for more natural sunlight in their designs. For many years homes were dark inside, but not today. The psyche needs light and the body demands the sun’s light-giving properties. With more sunroom technology that allows for more light minus the extremes, and with new home designs that invite more light through larger windows and open floor plans, the sun can affect your attitude and health. And at night, according to one homeowner, “When the moon comes out, and the stars do the same, I can lie down on my sunroom couch and look up and actually sense the earth turning on its axis.” A sunroom, if not for the light alone, is the outside world made comfortable inside.    

Keith R. Kelsch