Fibre optics to channel sunshine into room?

[Mike W W]

The main bedroom in my flat has west-facing windows. I would very much like to get more sunshine into the room during the morning and afternoon. The room is on the south side of the building, but I cannot put windows in that wall because of built-in wardrobes covering that wall. Above the wardrobes, there is about 2 foot of visible wall. I have thought about putting some glass bricks into the wall to allow some sunshine in, but I can't imagine it being all that effective. I wondered if anyone had any other suggestions. Are there any kind of fibre-optic products designed to channel sunlight into a room?

BTW, is building control approval needed to insert glass bricks into a wall?

Thank you,

Mike W

[adder1969]

Unless you actually opwn the bricks that form your flat you'll need permission from the landlord, possible planning permission and mostly likely building regs too.

One can buy things like mirror tubes but I don't know how practical that would be for you.

[Rexx Magnus]

There's something you can buy called Sunpipes - they're basically a flue-like tube with a domed top. They can be installed in flat roofs, or pitched roofs - but not sure about walls.

[Lobster]

[Malcolm Stewart]

One of my neighbours has a sunpipe, as suggested by others. It glows somewhat eerily at night.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Mike W W laid this down on his screen :

That would be very expensive for enough to make a difference and the fibre would be very lossy.

[Guy King]

The message from Mike W W contains these words:

Transparent concrete?

[The Natural Philosopher]

NO, but polished stainless steel light pipes are used. Far cheaper and surprisingly effective..must install one here on the central staircase.

[meow2222]

If you use something like this, a concentrator on the outside would up light levels quite a bit.

NT

[Mike W W]

Thanks to all for the replies. I looked at the sun pipes. Nice suggestion, but they are expensive, and they don't make a version designed to go horizontally through a wall. (The room in question is on the ground floor.)

So perhaps I might insert four 10" x 10" windows, high in the wall, glazed with some kind of prismatic glass (or perspex) that would direct sunlight into the room. Can anyone recommend any such glass and seen it at a reasonable price?

Incidentally, since the sun pipe concept works, does that mean you can increase the light entering a room by lining window recesses with mirror tiles or suchlike?

Mike W

[Mike W W]

I think think that comes as part of the Sunpipe kit, by the look of it. Or at least, they certainly supply something to go on the outside end of the pipe that looks like some kind of light concentrator.

Mike W

[<me9]

Glass bricks?

[The Natural Philosopher]

I don't think that matters actually. Not from the light point of view.

Oh yes..but not that much.

We've got a bathroom with one wall over the bath covered in mirror.

Very light room.

[dingbat]

Plenty of sun pipes around, and DIY works quite well too. However they're large diameter -- it's just not practical to take large areas of sunlight catcher and focus them down into really small pipes for distribution. This is one of the holy grails of cheap solar power.

[meow2222]

To some extent yes, as white paint would reflect some of it back out instead. But not hugely.

Where you direct it counts, light that hits a white roof has far more effect than light hitting a floor.

You can double your light input with a near horizontal mirror on the outside. Very small ones cna look ok, big ones are very effective but very visible.

The other optoin is a heliostat. This is a tracking dish that concentrates the sun onto your lil window all day long. The thing can be removed from the ground or wherever it is, a real plus for renters. OTOH conc sunlight and a faulty tracker is not a risk free combinatoin.

NT

[Stuart Noble]

I wonder how well they would work in a garden, directing light to shady areas.