Solar tube light
 

We are in the middle of a kitchen remodel. Our kitchen is in the middle of the house and without windows. The 10" velux rigid model supposedly will light up to 200sqft and I think the equivalent of 200 watts incandescent. My wife's question was, "what about at night, does it still work at night?" And then I got in trouble for thinking she was joking. I have since found they have a "night light kit" for it. Main benefit I see other than free light is its always on and I don't need to switch it on. We'll start with one over the main work area and might add another depending on her reaction. During the day this should eliminate the need for what is currently a fixture with 3x 23 watt cfls.

I have a solar tube in the bathroom. I rarely use the lights since putting it in. Even at night a clear sky and moon will give ample light as a night light.

During the daytime, these are incredibly useful - they are very bright, and it is not even strange walking into the room. It is daylight, and it feels natural.

I wanted to put one of these in my office during the remodel. However, I didn't have good place to put it (ceiling fan in the middle of the room). Make sure to take pics for us please! :)

I kick myself really hard for not getting these. I was going to put one in each bedroom and two in the living room/kitchen/dining room area.

I was hoping to find solar fiber optics for residential but apparently the technology isn't so simple. Maybe somebody will hack one.
Brighten Your Home - Hybrid Solar Lighting

They make a big difference. Well worth the extra hole in the roof and I don't like to put any extra holes in a roof..

I picked up a 14" one at depot on clearance last year. It's for the kitchen and I'm about half way through the kitchen remodel now. Have led cans over the counters and over the fridge and tall cab next to it. I have led tape light under and over the cabs and it alone is enough light for most kitchen usage.
The plan is that the skylight will provide most of the light during the day. It's a big kitchen and the window is a 36"x36" facing north with a large overhang and porch roof just to the east.

I have used them before and the one thing I recommend is to insulate the tube. Mine being 14" use 16" flex duct to insulate it.

How many hours of not running the CFL bulbs in the day does it take to pay for the tube? How much of that savings could you get by simply switching the CFL out for LED?

My guesstimate is something like 15 years at 10c/kWh, or less if you pay more for electricity. Lets say the 10" tubular skylight provides ~3000 lumens (Site says <4k max) that you would otherwise generate from 3 ~1000 lumen LED cans at 15W each for 6 hours/day.

45W*6hr/day*365day/year=~98,000Wh/year, so ~100kWh/year. 100kwh/year at 10c/kWh is $10/year, so ~15 year payback assuming DIY install. Obviously if you're never home in the day or only in the kitchen for a couple hours per day, that changes the economics a bunch. On the flip side, if you're in a high tier in CA, then it could be a payoff in less than a decade.

Edit - I forgot to include the cost of the LED cans, which would be ~$35-$55 depending on whether or not you got them on sale.

Another reason for the skylight is aesthetics. Our kitchen is now in the middle of our house without windows. I prefer bright work areas and natural daylight. Daylight helps keep people happy and healthy during the winter. What I've found is we get more light from it in early mornings than from windows. This is b/c of my shady lot and the dome's high location. Its a light i never have to turn on or off. Even if it were an led fixture I would have it switched off if I wasn't nearby.

Then there is the old saying: "There are really only 2 types of skylights, those that leak and
those that will leak"

What I like about the light tube is is ability to bring Natures sunlight into a otherwise dim room. I bet the atmosphere is real nice using one, much like a skylight does.

Skylights need to be installed by a competent person or your going to have issues , We had one in a house that some friends installed (who had starting a renovation business) that never leaked in 10 years.

Then there's my neighbor who had to rehire people to fix it when some buyers home Inspector noted the flashing was done incorrectly as well as the roofing around it.

Its hard for anything not to leak when people like Bozo the Clown install it.

Just registered. Came over from ecomodder. I know this is an old thread, but I thought I would add my experience with Velux solar tubes.

We put in a second story addition about 12 years ago. I purchased three solar tubes to give interior light. Two 10 inch tubes, purchased from Lowes, for a long dark hallway and a 21" hybrid system purchased from a cooperative local Velux dealer, from whom I also bought a couple of skylights for a stairway.

The 10" were for the 45' hallway in the addition and only had to go to the low-sloped roof. They work great. I could have gotten by with one. The 21" was for the ground floor kitchen, which had windows only into a breezeway. The previous owners had installed a cheap rectangular bubble skylight which lit the space quite well.

The addition put a 12' run to the roof. It was recommended that, while a 17" rigid tube might be sufficient, a 21" rigid would assure plenty of light, so I went for the 21". The only complication was that there was no 21" rigid for residential applications, so I had to cobble together a 21" residential flex tube kit with some rigid tube sections for a commercial installation. It wasn't particularly difficult and it puts a lot of light into the kitchen. I used sections of the flex tube to fit the rigid tube to the residential skylight and diffuser. I designed a chase into the second story floor plan adjacent to a hall closet.

Are they cost-effective? I don't care. I wanted natural light in otherwise dark spaces. I didn't feel that they were overpriced (the 10" kits were on sale), and given the cost of everything else in the addition and remodel, the solar tubes and skylights were not significant items in the budget.

I have checked around recently and the technology has advanced considerably in the intervening years. Supplemental lighting with LED arrays and light sensors can automatically adjust output to assure consistent light. You can also install automatic blackout shades (as was mentioned, even moonlight can brighten a space at night). I may try to upgrade my diffusers in a few years with this new technology.

Some advice, make sure you seal the tubes and connections thoroughly. I didn't and I get sun-roasted box-elder bugs in my diffusers that I have to clean out every few years. Given the nature of the beasts, I am uncertain that even properly sealing would work, as there are ventilation holes (don't block them) that would provide access.

Also, I had to install additional screws into the 21" skylight, as the number recommended in the installation instructions proved insufficient to keep the dome attached to the collar in a strong wind (a very strong wind). Fortunately, that lesson did not involve rain, snow or dust. I added screws to the other two tubes, just to be sure.

I installed my tubes and skylights into a new roof. I don't know as I would be enthusiastic about retrofitting them into existing roofing, but I haven't heard of any complaints from neighbors that have.

I have seen a youtube of a diy'er who tried to make his own solar tube using old mirrors. It didn't work. He would have been better off spending a little more (possibly less) and bought one from the big-box store or the internet. I think that a decent solar tube could be cobbled together by a diy'er but I don't know as it would be worth the agony.