TUBULAR SKYLIGHT: Start saving lighting electricity with Solatube today
May 26, 2008
GetWithGreen.com set out last week to purchase a tubular skylight. We needed a tubular skylight for a remodel we are doing, and we chose a tubular daylight device because we wanted to reduce the need for electricity to light a hallway.
Using the list of tubular skylight manufacturers GetWithGreen compiled last year, we selected Solatube. Solatube was selected solely because their website provided the most complete information about tubular daylight device. After a great introductory conversation with Marjorie Clark at Sunlight Concepts, Inc. (Solatube reseller and installer), we decided to drive down and make our purchase.
There are many options when purchasing a tubular daylight device. Here are the items you will need to consider:
- How much space are you attempting to light? The Solatube products come in a 10″ diameter (Model 160 DS) and a 14″ diameter (Model 290 DS). Tricky in their naming, the 160 DS means that it lights roughly 160-200 square feet, and 290 DS means it provides coverage for 300 square feet. For our hallway we decided that a 10″ skylight would fit the bill. The 160 DS retails for $350, and the 290 DS for $450. Your contractor will likely receive a discount on these products.
- Light or No Light. Solatube sells an optional electrical light fixture that installs inside the skylight for night-time use. This is a really nice option if you are installing the light in a hallway or closet. Since a tubular daylight device looks just like a recessed light when installed, we found this to be a great option! We purchased one. Depending on which one you want, the price ranges from $99-125 MSRP.
- Diffuser Type. Each product comes with a standard diffuser. A diffuser is the lens that you see when you look up at your skylight. Each diffuser offers a different type of light. Make sure the showroom you visit has different installations so you can see the differences. The standard diffuser was very appealing. Marjorie let us borrow the optional OptiView diffuser so that we can test it after our install. The OptiView delivers a bright light, and will also let off a prism effect on your wall in some cases. We urge you to ask your retailer to borrow the different types.
- Softening Lens. Once the diffuser is installed, you can purchase an optional softening lens that changes the color of the light. Once again, Marjorie was awesome, and she let us borrow a few different types…three different ones to be exact. They are very easy to swap out once your daylight device is installed. Again, ask your retailer to let you borrow a few to test out. If you decide to purchase they can cost you $15+.
- Tubing. Your Solatube Daylighting System will come standard with 4 ft of tubing that pipes the light from the roof to the installed “light” in your ceiling. Our installation required 8 ft, so we purchase two 24″ extensions which cost us $21.11 each. The extension allow us to make a slight angle in our way to the roof as well. NOTE: the product also include flashing for the roof. The flashing included pre-drilled holes which we thought was a nice touch.
- Other. Are you going to install the skylight yourself? The team at Sunlight Concepts charges $250 for installation. Some towns require a permit for installing a product like this.
Check back with us in a week or so, and we’ll let you know how our installation goes. For those of you in the San Jose, CA area, stop in and see Marjorie at Sunlight Concepts. She has all the various products installed in the showroom, and she is super friendly and an absolute pleasure to work with!
See more on Daylighting Systems from GetWithGreen.com
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I hadn’t heard of solar tubing. Interesting concept. Would you need a permit for the same reasons you generally need a permit for solar panels? Is it an aesthetic thing?
Dagny McKinley
http://www.onnotextiles.com
organic apparel
The only aesthetic issues that neighbors might have for one of these is that they are similar to a roof vent from the outside. There shouldn’t be any special permits for weight or anything, this is basically a skylight. And the benefits is the increased natural daylight you get (and less need to turn on lights). I’m very pleased with mine (actually a different brand, Suntunnel, made by Velux) and have described its application on my bungalow blog.
I put two in my master bathroom when I remodeled about 10 years ago, one in the tiled shower stall and one in the center of the room. This is an interior room with no windows so you can imagine what an incredible difference it makes to have natural light in there. I can’t imagine how much I’ve saved in electricity over the years - all day long the room has a bright natural glow. I sometimes even get enough moonlight down the tubes to light up the room a little. No, I don’t work for Solatube, just a very happy customer. Wish they had the optional light back then!
I recently had a 10″ Sun Tunnel brand tubular skylight installed in a very dark interior bathroom. Amazed at the amount of light it brings in. At first, we were a bit disappointed because the light seemed so cold white-very flourescent in appearance. However, it is growing on me and each day I am more pleased with it. If I could just stop turning off “the light switch.”
I am considering purchasing a Solatube skylight for another area bathroom because the brand seems to have many options and accessories, including several diffuser styles. I would probably have to make the purchase by mail order and so I need to make a judgement about diffuser I select. I want the brightest natural light look I can get, but a bit warmer than the straight cold white. Don’t want a true incandescent look. Can anyone suggest the right diffuser? I’m having trouble understanding the real meaning of the various diffuser descriptions.
Also, I would like to install a tubular skylight with a light fixture adapter in the upstairs hall/stairwell. The problem is that the only acceptable location on the ceiling for the diffuser would place the exterior fixture on the front roof of the house, about 2 feet from the top of the pitched roof. This is a No No in the community. Would it be possible to locate the diffuser at this point on the ceiling and then locate the exterior part of the tube about 3 to 4 feet away so that it is on the back side of the house? I guess this would take various lengths/elbows to accomplish, but would it reduce the light so much as to not make it worthwhile?
There are three types of softeners from Solatube:
1. Soft Effects (softens the natural light and diffuses it again so its not so bright)
2. Warm Effects (warms the white light to a warm glow)
3. Warm Softening Effects (warms & diffuses the natural light to an even softer warm glow)
Regarding your other questions about location, we hear from a dealer that you can put the flashing and dome on a different part of the roof - it will just take more tubing to get the Solatube at the proper location in the ceiling - may even have to use a 0-90 degree elbow piece if a turn is necessary to accomplish this, but it can be done. It should not decrease the light output much at all - and if you wants to soften it anyways it won’t matter - it might be beneficial.