Solar Tubes

So here are some photos of our really cool solar tubes! These things are great! There is a dome on top of the house (collector), and shiny metal tube that snakes down to the ceiling, an optional bulb receptacle (so it can still provide light at night using a CFL bulb), then a diffuser (not shown yet) that refracts the light into a 10 foot square lit area. We placed these solar tubes in the hallway, master bath, and the office. There will be skylights in Mom's bathroom and the kitchen dining area. Our hope is that with all these lights we will have tons of natural light and solar heat energy to reduce our heating and electrical needs. The skylights in the kitchen are even remote control operable, so we can open the lights to let out the hot air trapped in the vaulted ceiling. This is a view of the solar tube in the master bath. It gives a great view of the tube and how it snakes down, then gets mounted in the ceiling (most of the drywall for the master bath is yet to come, since we had to keep everything open while we wait for the city inspector.

This is a view looking straight up into the solar tube. You can see the lens collector at the very top, and the bulb receptacle sticking out into the center.

This is the office solar tube. From here it looks like a very bright light. I'll have to pull the numbers some day about the effective solar intensity (or candlelight power), but this looks brighter than any light I've ever seen in the daytime.


Here's a view of the solar tube for the hallway. If you look closely between the main vertical wood beam and the HVAC duct, you can see the 12" diameter tube as it snakes down from the roof to the hallway.

Here's a look from the outside as to what the solar tube collector looks like. I'll try to take some photos from the canyonside so y'all can really get a view of all the holes we cut in the roof.