Tubular Skylights
Most people enjoy the usual illumination provided by the skylights. But, skylights often don’t distribute light uniformly, and thus a lot of light and energy are lost. In addition, sometimes ordinary or badly installed skylights can become the reason of UV harm to carpets and other wooden equipment.
That’s the one of the reasons why tubular skylights were invented. They make use of the sunlight for illuminating the interior of rooms and houses inside without any of the disadvantages associated with regular skylights. Despite what some people think tubular skylights are not as hard to install when compared with regular skylights. In the end, they give your home’s interior a modern look while preserving your roof.
The structure of tubular skylights includes a sunlight collector on the roof, which normally contains an acrylic lens placed in a metal casing. The major part of tubular skylights has a reflective sun scoop which allows sunlight to enter through a metal or plastic tube. The inner coating of this tube is extremely reflective. After passing through the reflective tube, sunlight goes through a diffuser lens on the inner ceiling. This inner lens spreads the light uniformly to each and every part of the room. The scoop used for this purpose is parabolic in order to make sure that it collects maximum light regardless of the position of sun.
There are also some tubular skylights which incorporate electrical equipment and batteries that stores solar energy, and thus can provide light both in the day and at night.
There is only one disadvantage of tubular skylights which is that, just like conventional skylights they are just efficient in the living area straight beneath the top. In other words tubular lights are not that efficient in multi story houses, although it is not impossible to install tubular skylights there. Tubular skylights can be installed in multistory houses but they require a longer reflective tube to connect the outer scoop and the inner lens. As the length of the reflecting tube increases, its efficiency decreases but that is expected.
Installation of tubular skylights is not much more difficult than that of ordinary skylights and can be done with regular tools. For full efficiency, it is necessary that tubular skylights are mounted on an area of the roof top from where it can receive direct sunlight throughout the day.
So, as you can see, there are many aspects and advantages to tubular skylights. So, if you have a roof that is somewhat separated from your ceiling, you might consider them as an alternative for your light needs.