DIY Solar Panels World

Solar Light Tubes

Solar light tubes are a little different from the usual DIY solar panels stuff…but it’s still environmentally friendly. It’s all about designing your home so natural light can enter. Compared to using an opening in the roof, solar light tubes are much cooler.

This invention has been around for ages and is also known as a “tubular skylight”, “SunScope” or “Tubular Daylighting Device”. Ancient Egyptians first developed this idea to bring sunlight into their living spaces. Many years later, Paul Emile Chappuis from London begin marketing this concept and made it popular.

Solar light tubes are lined with highly reflective material that allows light rays into a building. The (light) entrance can be located on the roof or at an outer wall. Using a dome (cupola) at the entrance, more sunlight can enter the tube from different directions. At the other end of the light tube, a diffuser is used to spread sunlight evenly around the room.

If the tube is short and straight, it is more efficient and can transmit more light. For longer and angled tubes, the reflective efficiency must be very high in order to minimize losses. Better solar light tubes can also transmit moonlight — how cool is that?

In colder regions, skylights and normal windows do not offer better heat insulation than solar light pipes. Thus you can save on heating costs… There is also less visual contact with the external environment so you can have more privacy.

Solar light pipes provide you with natural light and can help you save energy (and money). Combining this setup with an artificial light, you can make full use of solar illumination when it’s day and rely on energy saving lamps at night.