Solar pipe? for illuminating internal room

[David]

Hi all Somewhere recently I saw an ad for a method of providing natural light to an otherwise dark internal room - the concept was a light collector of some sort mounted on the roof, with a duct or pipe to convey light down into the body of the house, to a light panel or something in the ceiling.

Sounded quite a good idea; I wondered if (a) anybody could point me at a suitable website/supplier and (b) whether anyone has seen one of these and can reccomend it? Or is it a gimmick which will cause your roof to leak, and stop working when the (inaccessible) light collector gets grubby?!

David

[Clive]

Ive seen one in use (in a internal bathroom)

Gives a suprising amount of light - for where you wouldnt be able to get a window

[Hugo Nebula]

On 7 Sep 2003 06:46:15 -0700, a particular chimpanzee named [e-mail] (David) randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

I've seen it used a couple of times. It gives about the light of a low wattage bulb, which is probably plenty in a WC or corridor. No idea about durability. As for weather-tightness; I would have thought no worse than a rooflight. Try

[Bluefog]

is the supplier whose tubes I have seen installed.

(b) whether anyone has seen one of

Yes. They provide adequate light for most things, and if mounted on the south-facing part of the roof they are a lot more efficient. Even on a cloudy day in February they gave enough light for my nearly-blind grandfather to move around quite well.

Or is it a gimmick which will cause your

As mentioned by others, the rain cleans them. Just be sure the installation is water-tight.

[Abdullah Eyles]

Just finished mine yesterday! (the same day that Dave wrote his message!)

I saw the idea on

used a 250mm PVC soil pipe, put the old washing machine's door glass on the top, fitted perfectly!

Lined the inside of the tube with silver foil (don't know how long it will last, but not difficult to remove and re-line because I cut off the wide end of the soil pipe and set that into the ceiling - the other part plugs in nicely!

Will have photos available when the film is out of the camera...

We use it to light up the stair well, so effective that we keep trying to turn off the light durung the day!