A sun/heat shield for my bath skylight

[hugh37]

I've recently purchased and installed products for my three roof vents (Fantastic) to help reduce the heat in my coach, during such extreme temperatures much of the country has been having.  I'd now like to find a way to cover the bath skylight, short of buying the expensive shade I've seen advertised.
Has anyone devised or otherwise come across such a product?  As we all know, an extreme amount of heat enters the coach through this skylight.  Thanks, in advance, for ideas anyone has.

 

[Marsha/CA]

We also have an Allegro Bus and have the big skylight over the shower.  This next year we are taking a trip to Alaska and one of the recommendations was to cover that skylight to actually prevent light from coming in during the 20+ hours of sunlight.  I plan to buy a roll of the foil insulation that looks quilted and cut a piece just a bit larger than the opening to the skylight.  Then I am going to put pieces of velcro on both the opening and the piece of foil insulation and stick them together.  When I don't need it, I'll roll it up and put it in closet.  It should keep the sunlight and the cold/warm out.

Marsha~

 

[Tom]

An alternative is to buy or make a cushion that gets pushed up into the skylight when needed.

 

[Marc L]

Might not work with the skylight, but for the vent above our bed, we made a square piece of fabric slightly larger than the hole and keep it up with magnets sticking to the mounting screws, otherwise I wake up at 4:30AM with daylight, a bit later now, nights are getting longer again.  Depending on the number of mounting screws for the shower skylight trim, magnets could be an option to hold up the aluminum blanket.

 

[FrontrangeRVer]

I believe the OP is talking about a Skylight, not vent covers. Mine is almost 4 times larger than a vent cover, and is similar to a triangle shape.

There is a good thread on this at RV.net where some have taken then inside skylight portion down and painted a dark color on it, and some have painted a roof coating on the outside of the top skylight portion.  Some have taken the inside and outside portions of the skylights apart and put the bubble wrap between the two skylights, but I have heard that this will cause heat deformity on the outside plastic skylight.

I am interested in this subject too because our large skylight in our shower gives off way too much light, and the heat soak in the RV is tremendous.  I'm leaning toward the rolling of the roof coating material on the outside of the top skylight layer (or painting it white), which will allow some light to come through, but limit the heat.

 

[Wandering]

For what it is worth...
Our Kountry Star (purchased used) has an insulated foil cover attached with velcro (as Marsha mentions) over the kitchen vent.  It is easily opened when you want to use the vent.  It seems like the same thing could be used for any vent or skylight opening.

 

[ruthandken CDN]

I bought one of those insulated things that fits in the windshield of a car (if you need a bigger one, they do come bigger) and cut it to size.  They are silver and quilted.  I then put super duper pieces of Velcro on all 4 corners and in the middle and matched it up on the ceiling.  It works like a charm and it really doesn't look bad IMHO.  The skylight above our shower is quite large also.

Ruth

 

[Marc L]

I believe the OP is talking about a Skylight, not vent covers.

That's why I started my post with "Might not work with skylight...", but shared the info in case that it would work.

 

[Barb]

They use to make a retractable cover.  I've been on the hunt for one for a while. With no luck. I also thought of an outdoor shade.

I'm not fond of Velcro in the shower. I like the magnet idea. If I can find some button magnets that will fit, I'll come up with some kind of cover.

 

[HVN FN]

We've had the same issue, needing to find a way to keep the lights from shining in all night through the bathroom skylight. Some good advice here - I'm going to see about finding a car windshield reflector to mount (I like the magnet idea) somehow. Has anyone else found a better method, since this thread seems a bit older?

 

[rls7201]

I use a piece of 1 1/2" foam insulation from Lowes. Just whittled it to fit the hole tightly.

 

[Rene T]

They use to make a retractable cover.  I've been on the hunt for one for a while. With no luck. I also thought of an outdoor shade.

I'm not fond of Velcro in the shower. I like the magnet idea. If I can find some button magnets that will fit, I'll come up with some kind of cover.

I noticed yesterday that Home Depot had various sizes of button magnets.

 

[UTTransplant]

Our shower skylight is a large rectangle. We bought an alumnized Reflectix-like cover designed for RV door windows and mounted it using Velcro. We have the same thing on our doors. I was surprised it was a very good fit. I wanted something that would allow air movement so it wouldn't generate mold. It has been there for 4 months now, and I am quite happy with it.

 

[Rene T]

I tried making a foam insert that would install with a very snug fit.  The black foam was about 3" thick. After about 3 days, I pulled it down to check everything and I found that the top of the foam had actually melted it got so hot up there so I threw out that idea. Does anyone have any issues with overheating?  Maybe I made it too tight so the hot air could not escape.

 

[Therrin]

There is Home Depot foam board that comes white foam on one side, and reflector foil on the other side.  I've used it for a variety of things in various trailers.  It is a bit messy to cut, because the cut edges get those hard-foam-balls that slough off, but I found if you just take strips of duct tape to cover all the edges with, it works very nicely. 

I would never put something black in a skylight to block sunlight, that's just a heatsink!  Use something of a lighter color or reflective.

 

[ArdraF]

Places like Joanne Fabrics have blackout curtain fabric.  You can get white for better reflection.  You cut a piece to fit the outside edges of the skylight and put some sticky Velcro on it as well as matching places on the ceiling.  You do need to sew the ones in place that fit on the fabric side.  I've made bedroom blackout curtains to block the morning light and/or overhead campground lighting.  When it's very warm or very cool we put them up for extra insulation.

ArdraF

 

[Therrin]

Places like Joanne Fabrics have blackout curtain fabric.  You can get white for better reflection.  You cut a piece to fit the outside edges of the skylight and put some sticky Velcro on it as well as matching places on the ceiling.  You do need to sew the ones in place that fit on the fabric side.  I've made bedroom blackout curtains to block the morning light and/or overhead campground lighting.  When it's very warm or very cool we put them up for extra insulation.

ArdraF

That's a great idea.  And the velcro as well.  My skylight doesn't have vertical sides, they're slightly sloped, so anytime I've tried to cram something in there, it just scoots and pops back out.  I'm gonna give the velcro a shot.

 

[SeilerBird]

I just wandered around Home Depot until I found a tile that was two foot square by 3/4 inch thick and I duck taped it to the ceiling. I like the Velcro idea, I will fix that tomorrow.

 

[robertusa123]

Dollar store. Foam drawing board  1/4 in.  Just cut out and double or triple up