I’ve always wanted a house with skylights installed. For some reason, that sounds like the lap of luxury to me, and I love the idea of looking up into a beautiful blue sky in the morning. It would also be amazing on clear nights to lay in bed and see the stars twinkling down on me from the comfort of my home. When I finally got to buy my own home I made certain that it had this feature, without realizing there would be one downside; the skylights are constantly fighting my air conditioning unit and making my central cooling system work overtime. I simply hadn’t foreseen the possibility of the direct sunlight causing a major shift in my indoor air temperature, but the beating sun rapidly changed the air quality on sunny days like you wouldn’t believe. I found that it was so significant that my thermostat was kicking into gear more often, and the rest of the house was getting unreasonably cold as a result of all the excess AC. I simply couldn’t find a happy medium between the sun and the HVAC, and my energy bill was getting caught in the crossfire. Finally, I looked into zone controlled heating and cooling in order to regulate the hotter areas of the house without overpowering the lower level. It turned out to be fairly reasonable, considering how much I was contributing to my energy bills each month, and I arranged for the installation of an updated thermostat and ventilation system as soon as possible. Ever since, I’ve been able to actually enjoy my skylights, without sweating through my sheets or dreading the utility bills.