The back half of our house is really dark- we got one of these in our guest bathroom and it’s seriously amazing. So bright, it helps a lot even on cloudy days (I live in PNW so we have a lot of those)
The back half of our house is really dark- we got one of these in our guest bathroom and it’s seriously amazing. So bright, it helps a lot even on cloudy days (I live in PNW so we have a lot of those)
My parents have one in upstate NY where it is almost as cloudy as the PNW. It helps a lot. It is even noticeable on nights with a bright full moon as well. I thought there was a nightlight in the bathroom the first night we were there.
Is there a loss of insulation? Like do they allow heat to escape more easily?
I'm not sure, but knowing my father, combined with the winters there, it must be minimal.
If you don’t mind me asking, how much did you pay for it? I would love to get one of these, but I’m not a millionaire. I’m genuinely curious.
Search for sun tunnel on Homedepot , I have the 10 in and they're about $200. They're easy to install if you're handy and know how to do roofing (important part so it won't leak). I have 4 in my house and did them all by myself. If I ever move on to another house , I'll definitely install them again .
I had mine installed. I'm not very handy and being on the roof scares me. I paid around $800 for the last one. I got the first one in 2007, and have had several reroofs due to hail damage; these have held up well. I intend to put in one more eventually.
$800 for install and everything?
Yes, but haven’t priced it lately.
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The “Hail Nah” kind imo
… big ones? 🤷🏻♀️
Baseball size? Though the times we’ve had golf ball size also led to roof replacement.
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Asphalt shingles. Also dented my gutters badly enough that they had to be replaced.
I’m sure there are varying levels of pricing as with most items, but $200 is far lower than I’d expect for something like this. It seems so reasonable to me.
Don't overlook the "if you're handy and know how to do roofing" part. Retrofitting this into an existing structure is unlikely to be a trivial task (especially in older homes with limited options for routing the parts that have to go behind interior walls and/or ceilings. A contractor's labor is going to be the most expensive part of this, by a lot.
My house was built in 1850. I don't touch jack shit.
Cool! Seems like it might be a little fally-aparty by now though, no?
No its in really good shape. There is an expansion that was done in the 80's which is in worse shape than the original house.
The lead and asbestos are glueing the older parts together.
I live in an house build around 1906 and all lead and asbestos was removed. Still have had little issues besides a leaking roof due to design mistake when making a new balcony.
This is an important point. There's a product called SpacePac for heating/AC which is specifically designed for retrofitting into older homes where there isn't enough space in the walls and between floors for regular ductwork.
I've always liked these sun tubes; two of the houses we've owned, they wouldn't have been installable for the places we needed then unless we ran the ducting outside.
SpacePac is cool tech (pun realized after writing it, now retroactively intended). I really wanted to put it in my historic home when we finally decided we'd had enough of taking the window units in and out every year.
Unfortunately the quotes we got to install SpacePac were more than double the next best alternative. So we went with mini split units instead. There were still some tricky parts, but the work got done in under a week and in the ballpark of our budget. I'm pretty happy with them.
It's just always a pain to try to figure out how to run new conduits through existing walls. And then the cost of actually doing that kind of work often makes it a better idea to go with a less invasive alternative. If we were taking the house down to studs and doing a complete remodel, then I think SpacePac would make sense. But trying to put it behind the walls turned out to be a bad idea, even though I started out pretty well convinced that would be the best solution.
We put SpacePac in one house. I love that system. It was a bit pricy, but the house had no central heat or air when we moved in; electric baseboards, a wood stove, and a window unit. It was a small house, which kept the price down.
But, as I said, I love SpacePac and wouldn't hesitate to put it in even a new build. I loved the fact that the air comes out at velocity. It's not just marketing that it mixes the air quickly and allows for more (perceived, if nothing else) temp changes. It's not silent, which we also like -- we're both people who need a noise machine or fan on at night. It was simply a great system, and I still miss it. The only thing I like having more than SpacePac for heat is radiant heat, and even then there are things about SpacePac I miss with radiant.
Anyway, that house was a decade ago and I still remember that system fondly.
Parts $200
Labor & expertise $1,000
and tools $100 - $1,500
I had one installed and it was maybe 250$. Pretty good bang for the buck.
$250 including parts and labor?
Sounds like a straight up and down one with no bends or long duct to traverse.
Yeah when we built our house we had some quoted as part of the build and they were more on the 1500 to 2000 range. They were some fancy ones though.
There are other types for these as well. Some have integrated lighting as well. My wife really wants this for out upstairs hallway to provide all the light necessary for that area. Some can even adjust the brightness of the integrated light to get consistent brightness regardless of the amount of light coming through the tunnel.
The product itself is basically just two pieces of glass/plastic and some reflective metal tubing connecting them. It’s a clever idea but there’s nothing particularly expensive about the material. It’s all about the installation.
Thanks so much! Purchased my grandmothers house when she passed away and it's so dark. They closed off the front porch so the living room window goes into a closed off porch now and we get no sun! They also built on a back room so there's no sun in the kitchen either. very well may invest in a few of these!
Lol love the DIY not up to code grandparent's homes. Mine was the same way.
Yes! The "inside" of the closed off porch is literally the brick front of our house lol and the door to come inside from the porch is the original exterior door. Glad I have the home though
Do they generate/produce heat?
just a tiny bit in the summer extreme heat (100s) but not noticeable , the later version that I purchased later on had a thicker "screen" so no heat at all.
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it's your house, do whatever you want to do with it. I'm just offering my advice in case folks want to attempt and have no idea how to lay shingles/flashing. The last thing you want to see is rain water leaking through the roof from the whole that you punched through.
So about 441€ - 970€.
We got a quote to install one of the 'fancier' versions (light shut off ability, etc.) + installation in a more challenging spot of our house, and it was under $900.
Unless your a pro roofer or have a similar set of skills, I would recommend paying for the professional install. The one negative I've heard about the sun tunnel lights is the possibility of leaks. As someone else already noted, the seal needs to be installed with precision or the [relatively] cheap upgrade can end up being very expensive in the long haul.
The equipment itself is around $300 - we were getting a new roof and had the guys cut the hole for us. We installed the inside bit ourself and it was really easy. The roofers charged around $300 for the hole since they had to seal it and do roofer stuff so all told it was about $600
typically a few hundred bucks depending on size. we had two 14" installed for just under $2k (twin cities MN). could have installed these myself, but the 26% federal tax credit when professionally installed was a good draw.
I would like to know as well.
The units are only a couple hundred bucks. The complexity of the installations vary.
Mine was about $700 installed, about 5 years ago. Steep, 3 story roof, in an expensive area.
Do not get them at home depot, they are terrible quality. Look up local solar tube dealerships in your area and get a quote. Where I work, the whole price of a tube +installation + 10 years warranty is $750-850. Home depot will f you over
How often do you need to clean the roof element?
No idea - we’ve had it since April and so far so good. It rains a lot here so I imagine we won’t need to clean it often
Pretty much never.
Dumb question- do you need to wear sunscreen? Like if it’s direct sun rays, you’d need sunscreen? Right?
not a dumb question at all.
no, you don't need to wear sunscreen. the dome filters UV out and the diffusers spread the light out, so zero risk of sunburn. you're never seeing direct sunlight (even with a straight tube).
This is actually a good question. I'm hoping maybe it blocks harmful UV days. If not you'd go through a lot of sunscreen
Both the outer dome and the inner diffuser will prevent any significant quantity of UV from getting through to the living space.
Most makeup I've used has UV protection in it. So my face will be safe, at least.
What is the termal reduction like?
Yes, interesting, because 5 watt led give light without thermal issues
I’m not sure what you mean but it doesn’t heat up my bathroom so far as I can tell. We’ve had it all summer and even through a massive heatwave.
And someday you'll have water coming in too!
They have significantly lower leak rates than skylights.
I had a house in Oklahoma and added 6 and in 8’years never had a leak
I have three, got one in 2007, one in 2010, and one in 2016. None have leaked, and I've had reroofs due to hail damage.
We had some serious ice storms and some serious wind and they were awesome
Check back with me in a couple of years
Sold that house but did put another one in the dc row house and it’s held up for 10 years
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Yeah ok
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Ok
No, we had our roofers install it properly. If we installed it ourselves it would probably leak 🤷🏻♀️
I am a roofer. And people seem to think a right good one
Thank you for reminding me why I don't want them.
not necessarily. like everything in life, it depends on installation quality. you do a crappy job, you get all the free water you don't want.
do a good job, these stay watertight for years.
much, much more leak-resistant than skylights, for that matter (and cheaper).
Your roof likely has a half dozen to a dozen roof vents anyway, it is common to have leak proof roof openings.
For a while
Neat! How did you learn about these and where did you order from?
One of our friends has one so that’s where we learned about it. We got the kit from Home Depot and had our roofers install it when they were putting on the new roof this spring 😊
I am assuming it is impossible to "turn off"? Or function at night?
some have a sliding shade that you can close with a remote, my job had one with a shade and when closed there was no light.
Fellow PNW here: how well is the light coming through this month? I’m sure it brings in some, but at least where I’m at I could have all the windows open and it’s still dark. Also, crazy amount of rain this year!!
Can I ask where in the PNW? I’m in western Wa state and just remodeled a home with one of these in an upstairs bathroom. On a mid summer day it works well, but with fall and winter it was worthless. If you just need enough light to see and grab something it works, but doing anything that requires vision and seeing details, it was less than worthless, even on a non-rainy cloudy day.
I live in Beaverton which is a smidge west of Portland. I think roof placement is key- we put it on a part of our roof that gets full sun throughout the day. We haven’t had a lot of rain yet so our cloudy days have mainly been the real light grey so it’s still bright enough.
Yeah it’s been nasty in Tacoma. We’ve had some solid weeks of pure downpour rain. We were finally able to convince the homeowners to put in a few lights, because this system just didn’t work well. When we started work in the summer, it was extremely bright, always looked like a bright light was on, as soon as fall hit, work required raised lights all over the bathroom to see what we were doing. This was even around mid day without rain, so it felt useless.
The one in my small bathroom also does a decent job of reflecting light from streetlights, motion lights and any other light, during the night hours.
It’s funny to be confused about your bathroom having light in the middle of the night even though the lights are off.
These have been available for quit a long time. I always wondered why we don’t see more. My parents took out an old chimney to a wood stone and replaced it with one of these. It’s awesome. It’s almost 20yrs old too.
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damn, when your tomb has windows you know you've made it!
That made me laugh way too hard, thanks for that 😂
Appreciate it, but now the original comment's been edited my joke is nullified 😭
Honestly, it’s even funnier without the original comment, it makes it just look like a real random joke 😂
...and also a regular light provides more light. ...and also works at night and when it's cloudy, snowy, and there aren't leaves/dirt/dust/etc on the roof.
These are cute, but they aren't practical.
I have an old house, and while almost every room as 1-2 windows there are spaces that could benefit. There are only windows on two sides of the house, and the upstairs hallway essentially has no natural light if the bedroom doors are closed, and we have an interior bathroom with no window that could benefit. Newer houses are much more 'open concept' and may not have the same issue. I have considered retrofitting one of these in to the upstairs hallway so its not pitch black at night. My infant loves to pull night lights out of the outlets.
Architect here! They're not always practical as they are most impactful when they can replace electric light. Unfortunately, electric light is most commonly required when the sun isn't bright enough to light a room. The solatube can help bring sunlight back into a space that is far from a window, however it can't do so early morning, at night, during a storm, etc. So a lot of people have heartburn over paying for one when its a straight up cost add (as opposed to a substitution.) That said, they can help save some electricity in dark rooms on sunny days!
Just something about sunlight too. Feels different.
Natural lighting is always ideal. I live in a place where I would benefit from this greatly.
How much extra output do you think you would get using a domed fresnel element instead to focus the light through the tube during non optimal times?
what building are they most commonly used in ?
To be honest, I work in commercial architecture in the midwest and I have never successfully used them in a project. I have heard of them being used in offices, and given the hours they would provide light they seem most appropriate for functions with limited hours, like schools. They're a bit cost prohibitive for residential afaik.
It would seem like an alternative to skylights but in rooms that don’t have windows. That’s why a lot of people in other parts of the thread say they have it in boats.
I could imagine this in hallways however. Seems like it’s always a space that has traffic, doesn’t usually have windows, and always uses light bulbs as main source of lighting. It would allow for plant growth as people were saying and the nice natural light.
I would also think leaks (any hole in your roof increases the odds of leaks!) might be a consideration and also ventilation. Real windows are much better for that!
I’ve got one with a small solar panel and led light integrated. So it can provide light at night too.
Home contractor here, I just remodeled a house where one of these were the main light source for an upstairs bathroom. This is in Washington state where we get a ton of rainy weather. On a sunny day it worked extremely well, but as we crept into fall and winter, it was a worthless source of light.
By worthless, I mean you couldn’t do basic things mid day without extra sources of light. The idea is cool, but it’s only useful in certain parts of the world at best.
It's not the savings. I'd guess that it will take me several decades before this thing saves us any money, if at all.
The point is that we don't want artificial lighting when we can bring in some semblance of natural daylight, even if indirect.
I feel much smarter after reading this response
They used them in ships too. Very old tech. Has staying power it’s such a good idea.
Extremely old. They’ve been used on sailing ships for hundreds of years. They’re called deck prisms
Had to scroll way too far down to find deck prisms! I bought one when I was in San Francisco. Such a cool little piece of "tech."
From the design side of the industry, it's a combination of price, knowledge, and aesthetics.
On very inexpensive homes, this is a substantial increase in cost. Before you argue, realize that one of the largest tract home builders in Virginia successfully argued that a door to a bedroom/bath only needs to be 34" wide for most accessibility purposes, rather than 36" wide as proposed in the 2015 version of the building code. Now, to get a normal 34" door is actually more expensive as its a non-standard size (which is why it wasn't originally proposed that way). But this builder know that they could get 1000s of 34" doors at $2-3 less than 36" doors if they ordered in bulk. It would also save some redesign cost where their corridors were already near the minimum sizes. At $250-300, plus the redesign for the chase required to put them anywhere but on the top floor, these aren't going into a bottom-dollar tract home.
In the low- to mid-range custom Most people simply don't know about them and don't ask for them. Since they're not common, custom builders won't have them in their normal catalog for buyers to choose from. Beyond a certain middling price point, owners start getting very picky about how the outside of the house looks. A roof dotted with little clear hemispheres is ugly (mid-Century Modern is probably the proper term, but ugly mostly covers it). They'd rather recess some power consumption devices and just pay for the light rather than see something unusual on their roof.
My personal opinion is that, if you can hide the roof zits, they're very cool to have as long as it's not somewhere that color temperature will matter. A colleague hid the collectors on the top of a fake chimney on a house, then used that light to illuminate a large interior stair shaft and it worked extremely well.
Who cares if you can “hide the roof zits”? Seriously, I’ve owned several houses and this would be a non-issue. Do you hide your solar panels too?
I deal mostly with clients designing and building super custom 8ksf+ houses. I also dabble in historic buildings as well. What those look like from the outside means quite a bit. In the rare instances these houses have solar panels, they are a design feature - meant to show off to the world how environmentally conscious the client is and to compliment the small fleet of Tesla DDs in the drive (but the sports cars are usually in the second garage).
Also, I only get brought in when someone wants something dramatic -I'm a SE not an architect; I help clients do the "impossible". On my house, I probably wouldn't care. I've got a commercial-esque range hood fan on the back of my house, but I'm not willing to spend the $15k it would take to hide it because I never have to look at it. Then again, I'm just a middle class grunt with a brick ranch in the middle of nowhere; I didn't drop 7 figures on a monument to empty nest largesse.
I think because while sky lights don't take up any extra space these do. If you're using a sun tunnel though most of the time it's because the roof is too high above where you want the light which is mostly only the case for multi storey buildings. So that means taking up valuable space with these sun tunnels since you can't appreciably confine the light down a fibre optic. Or instead you could use the floor space for something else and install LED lights that cost very little to run and will likely be much brighter (depending on tube length, diameter etc etc).
They create entry points for water in roofs over time. They are great, but definitely create problems as roofs age or weather storms, or immediately if they are not put in by competent builders.
The chimney chase is still there. It literally just took the place of the chimney pipe. In my experience as a builder, those fuckin chimney chases are a common problem. I’ve fixed so many bad ones.
Yea I was going to say, my parents house has had these since they moved in back in 2000. Did one in the bathroom and in the hallway
My family had a set back in the early 90s. They sucked. None of the warmth of the sunlight was reflected in so it was like you had a couple really terrible big lights with the cheapest led with like 8700k lumens that you couldn't turn off
Wait a second, are you telling me that MIRRORS have been around for a long time?!?
Hard to believe
Because putting holes in roofs is just begging for leaks.
A Looooooong time. These, or at least versions of these have been used tolight lower decks of ships for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Woah. When you said "quite a long time," I still assumed they weren't in residential use until recently. Thanks for sharing.
Looks like the earliest recognizable version of it was in the 90s but the idea is traced back to the late 1800s on the wikipedia page. (source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_tube)
In 1994, the Windows and Daylighting Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed a series of horizontal light pipe prototypes to increase daylight illuminance at distances of 4.6-9.1 m, to improve the uniformity of daylight distribution and luminance gradient across the room under variable sun and sky conditions throughout the year. The light pipes were designed to passively transport daylighting through relatively small inlet glazing areas by reflecting sunlight to depths greater than conventional sidelight windows or skylights.[4][5]
I remember houses had them in the 70's, the old sky light. But then they would leak so they all got removed.
Light bulb producers hate this simple trick!
It's partly because lightbulbs have become so cheap and efficient that it's far less expensive
They’re expensive. At least they were the last time I looked into getting them.
I have one of these in my bedroom! Not a lot of light gets through my window so we added a sun tunnel and now sometimes it’s so bright we think we left the light on.
So… can you turn it off? Like a little curtain or shutter or whatever? Or do you just have blinding light waking you up at 5am in summer?
So there’s like layer that diffuses the light so it’s not a harsh stream of light, it’s just a soft light around the whole room. Apparently you can get a cap or something you can put on it but I don’t have one because light doesn’t wake me up and I like my room to be bright when I wake up.
light doesn't wake me up
Teach me your ways. The tiniest, and I do mean tiniest amount of light is enough to wake me up.
I think I’m just a heavy sleeper. It’s a problem because I also sleep through alarm clocks. Currently my parents wake up in the morning but I’m genuinely worried about how I’ll wake myself up when I move out.
I used to work with a guy who was a VERY heavy sleeper. He practicality went into a coma every night. He had to get a special alarm clock that went under his mattress and vibrated the entire bed in order for him to wake up.
The weird thing is that sometimes I wake up really easily. Like this morning I woke up just when my dad was just coming into my room to wake me up. And then I went back to sleep for two hours with my bedroom door wide open and my dad working in the other room without waking up.
I get that way too, no idea what the difference is. Sometimes it takes a lot to wake me up, other times a leaf hits the ground outside and it wakes me up.
Did you hire someone to build it?
My dad sorted it all out but we definitely had a couple guys come and install it. I’m not sure if it was people from the company we bought it from or if it was third party though.
Usually a roofer like me would install it. Usually a huge pita and you end up cussing and cut up from the foil tape and tubes.
Does your dad have to go on the roof to clean it every year?
Well we’ve had it for like 5 years and we haven’t cleaned it once.
You should clean it and see if it's brighter.
It’s already pretty bright so I’m fine for now.
As someone who installed blackout shades in my bedroom and tape over annoying leds to have as dark of a bedroom as possible… having a solar tunnel in my room horrifies me.
But I have a dark middle section of the home where nobody sleeps that could definitely use one.
You can get black out “curtains” for them I think!
So.. Sunnels?
I sincerely hope this is the official industry term
They're actually called Solatubes.
They're actually called Solatubes.
By a single company, they are called that. It's just a brand.
i don't imagine the sunnel industry is too pervasive to have multiple players in the game just yet
Yes but I heard the single player campaign is a lot of fun. Not every game needs to evolve into an MMORPG
I'm more a single player game guy anyway, I'll have to check this one out.
It should only cost $10,000 to pay someone to turn Sun of the Wild into a multi-sun game right?
About a dozen, including Velux, who probably sells triple the amount that solatube does annually.
I'm sorry for my gross ignorance on the sunnel industry
Knowing is half the battle.
"Just like we call Q-tips 'cotton swabs'!"
-said absolutely nobody
UK here, we don't use a brand name. I just say "Cotton buds"
Yeah but literally no one except people that frequently installs solatube calls them solatubes. That would be like calling skylights "Velux's" just because they're the most well known brand, or calling every car a GM.
They're just called sun tunnels.
Genericization is a real phenomenon, but it does not happen with every brand. Nobody calls a car a Ford. Yes, it happened with Q-tips. No, it is not relevant to the topic at hand.
The industry term is tubular skylight.
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You have to declare it.
Sunnels will be their name. And the name shall be Sunnels. Sunnels has been declared.
Sunnels the harbinger of light
Generic name is a light pipe.
From £621 ... bloody hell
nope, that's a brand.
industry term is "solar tubes" or "sun tunnels".
Just like tissues are actually called Kleenex?
"tubular daylighting devices" is the generic industry term
Oh bless you, I was going to be grievously disappointed if no one had suggested this yet!
Mirror tubes
Ha I was like 322 comments surely someone else said this ha yup.
Thick ass optical fibers
Dunder Mifflinfinity
LightMeIn™
It’s a TDD (tubular daylight device).
Travesty that I had to scroll this far for this word.
I was gonna post it otherwise.
We have like 4 of these in our house. Solatubes. They’re awesome. Ours have light fixtures in them so they’re useful at night.
Do they ever leak? I’ve always wanted some, but I’ve just put on a new roof and part of me cringes at the thought of poking holes in it and worry that it will leak.
Nope. They’re spot on. No leaks
Man, it’s so tempting. My house is tiny rambling 1910 jewel, and DARK inside. Some rooms have no windows at all! The tubes run about a grand each installed, right?
Not sure, our house came with them. Adding the light fixures was about $125 each installed, so that sounds about right.
Highly recommended, you won't regret it :) Make sure you spring for the fixtures too, they're a game changer at night, especially on a smart dimmer like Lutron Caseta.
Depending on area. I’d charge $1500 cause it’s a pain.
That’s a totally fair point, lol.
Really depends on where you want it, access inside the attic, and how tall is the roof from the ceiling.
Listen, dude, what you do is WORTH whatever you charge. It’s risky, frustrating, and physically uncomfortable. Crawling around in hot dusty attics, dealing with power tools while precariously balancing, navigating rooves… Ugh. The whole thing makes me makes me woozy even considering. And a house as old as mine is even more difficult because it’s all weird spaces and strange angles, and non-standard measurements. I would honestly expect to pay more than that anyway once you saw the place in person, lol. Looks like instead of a solatube I may just be getting a lightbulb!
Do it then hire a roofer to come make it waterproof
Oh, I’d for sure hire a pro to do it from the get go. I’m a totter-y older disabled lady who walks with a cane. Putting me on a roof would be a serious mistake. Heck, stand on level ground can be a challenge. Though watching my chubby butt slide off of the metal roof might be good fun for the neighbors!
what kind of roofing do you have?
Standard comp shingles and synthetic underlayment. We just redid the roof but the tubes were in there for many years before we bought the place.
We also live in Southern California where it’s more like “rain, lol! Wtf is that?”
More weather tight than most skylights if installed properly. Most of the time people don’t screw the tubes together and they fall apart when the tape fails 10 years down the road
As a home inspector, yes, they can be a source of roof leaks when not properly flashed or sealed. Just make sure a licensed pro does work. Not handyman homeowner.
Right. That makes perfect sense. Roofs are so insanely important, and a single mistake can end up in misery and awful expense. I put in a metal roof (I had 4 separate leaks in the old one) and took out the chimneys, and I just love knowing how tight and dry it is. Bring on the rain! (I also love hearing the squirrels slid, lol, but that’s neither here nor there.)
But here’s the real question: would YOU have someone poke holes in your brand new shiny metal roof for these tubes? I’m always more interested in what an expert does with their own stuff. I even asked Norm Abrams, back when he was doing This Old House, if he’d rather refurbish a beautiful old home or build a new one from scratch, and he said, “Oh, new, every time new!”
I 100% am with you and Norm, new every time! But that’s just me, no “ignorance is bliss” when it comes to homes. A system, like the all important roofing system (what you said is 100% true) is designed to be installed in a correct order and per manufacturer instructions, so adding any modification after the installation may void any installer warranty for that pricey metal roof as well. Having said that, a true pro can properly add them, and ensure they are water tight, I’d imagine. I’d just prefer not to. Lol about squirrels sliding, I love it.
Yeah, I used to listen to the little buggers up there running around, and I could hear then gnawing on eaves to get into the attic. Now they leap from the tree, thump onto the roof, and sliiiiiiiide down. It never hurts them, but lord is it hysterically funny. It fills me with an evil glee!
That is hilarious!
How do they stay clean ?
Not sure they just kind of do. The light is diffused through frosted glass inside so you’d never notice dirt on the roof end.
You can incorporate an electric light source into one of these solar tubes?? That’s pretty clever. I need one of those for my office.
Yeah! It’s awesome. We put ours on a Lutron smart dinner that integrates with Apple HomeKit. It’s great
Aziz! Light!
Yes thank you Aziz
"It's an older reference, sir, but it checks out"
Don't know why more office space don't use these in the States. Seems like an excellent way to light a building, or I'm visiting older office space. I know big box stores use similar solar lighting. I also think ive seen some of these systems use a junction box of sorts with fiber cables moving light around as well as providing supplemented light at night with a single sourced bulb.
My guess is it's more difficult to build than just regular light fixtures
Anything harder, or more expensive, or too durable, will simply not be done here.
too durable
Gotta love industry's reliance on planned obsolescence.
A reminder that the oldest lightbulb in the world has been going for 120 years,
Technology like OPs post directly harms manufacturers ability to continue making a profit off a product indefinitely.
They hate that.
The global lighting market size was USD 118.33 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 163.72 billion by 2027
I've worked in construction for 10 years and there is basically no planned obsolescence anywhere. The amount of people signing off on the quality of the product is extraordinary, from customers and contractors to engineers. There's an amazing amount of redundancy built in to nearly all aspects of a building.
More than likely these are a wildly impractical application in the vast majority of commercial applications. Off the top of my head I would think it becomes not so simple to install these on anything other than single story buildings, and there are regulations about keeping areas well lit enough for emergency egress that these wouldn't reliably satisfy.
Not everything is a corporate overlord master scheme.
This is some paranoid 3rd grade level stuff right here. Of course you can get sun tubes, they just cost money. Rich peoples' houses get things like this by default. But they’re not so expensive that my normal income friends couldn’t add two to their kitchen. It wasn’t that hard.
And the lightbulb that’s 120 years old is basically a dim orange glow stick that can never be turned off. Not exactly a feasible example. Add on to that I’ve been using the same LED bulbs for like 3 years now and never had to change even one… calm yourself sir.
The weird part is while you’re right about the old bulb there actually was a lightbulb cartel for quite some time that artificially limited lightbulb lifespans.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel
An interesting read but the bulb efficiency goes down as life goes up, so there was a practical reason for limiting bulb lifespan.
This cartel was in some ways a bit more like establishing an industry standard. Regular bulbs lasted 1000 hours, long life bulbs exceeded that up to 2500 hours.
Three years is not a long time for bulbs. They should hold much longer. So don't brag with that
Not bragging at all, just have only lived in this house that long. Can't remember the last time I saw a halfway decent LED bulb blow out. Obvi the super cheap ones the driver can and will overheat and fail... but spend even a few dollars for something that's not the cheapest crap china can produce and you're golden.
I should have marked on the inside of the ceiling light when I installed my LEDs. They have to be hitting 10 years old by now.
edit: just checked the bulb on my desktop. It's a Phillips 12e26a60-1, released in 2013. The lights in the ceiling were put in just before, so yea, 10 years.
3 years really is not a long time for something like this, that's a very low expectation you have there. I would be very annoyed if I had to change my lightbulbs every 3 years.
Okay, but the context was in commerical use, like office spaces. And he's right lol.
The reason sun tubes don't work in office buildings is because they're vertical. A single tube to the 2nd floor would require a hole through literally every other floor above. Now you've got a whole lot of space inside the building dedicated to simply not getting in the way of the sun...and you still need dedicated HVAC space to move air anyways.
from wikipedia
The Centennial Light is the world's longest-lasting light bulb, burning since 1901, and almost never switched off.
i bet if they turned it on and off a couple hundred times it would burn out. afaik, being on isn't usually what kills filament bulbs, it's on/off cycling
still really impressive, thanks for the link
Not cost effective. If there isn't a few years payback, companies won't buy in.
Plus maintenance costs. Someone needs to clean these on a regular basis for optional lighting.
These should work in conjugation with auto-dimming lighting. Which puts costs out past the few years payback target.
Doesn’t work well if you have multiple floors that need to be lit. The light is too weak if you keep splitting it. It’s really only good for single floor spaces that can’t be well lit like subways.
I think a big problem is also that if it's a shitty day you don't get much light
Yeah, you're still going to need regular light fixtures.
This also makes air conditioning harder as it adds heat to the inside of the building.
The extra heat would balance out in the colder months tho.
Unless there's snow on it :/
Could totally improve people's moods too from the added vitamin D
Edit: You learn something new everyday. Apparently Vitamin D is generated by absorbing UV rays (UV-B specifically) and these rays are largely absorbed by the atmosphere (oxygen atoms specifically). So reflected sunlight is largely free of these wavelengths and thus wouldn't provide much, if any, benefit.
Aren't that effect practically null if sunlight isn't direct? I've always thought that the moment it crossed a glass that effect was gone.
That's right! To generate Vit D, the body needs exposure to UV - UVB rays actually - and they can't pass through the glass.
There are some materials that pass UV-B though. ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) is one of those. It has a similar refractive index to glass, so could be used for this application. But I'd guess the price is very prohibitive of doing that.
That said, most windows even have a coating on it that block UV rays even more than normal glass would do. Because humans can quickly get too much exposure to UV and develop skin issues like accelerated ageing, or even skin cancer. Besides, many indoor materials (paints, plastics, fabrics, ...) will also degrade quickly when exposed to UV radiation.
Greenhouse glass usually doesn't have an additional UV-blocking coating, and you can get a tan under greenhouse glass (albeit way slower than in the plain sun).
Yeah i was going to say, there are a lot healthier ways to get Vitamin D than through UV radiation
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It's a different biochemical process. Plants photosynthesise and can use a broader spectrum of light wavelengths.
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/photosynthesis-in-plants/the-light-dependent-reactions-of-photosynthesis/a/light-and-photosynthetic-pigments
Wait, are you not a plant? I thought we were all plants. No wonder you guys are getting sunburned.
I was not expecting to open Reddit and read one person patiently explain to another that we are not plants.
It could give people placebo effect doe👀
I don't think you're looking for placebo with vitamin deficiencies
Because they tend to leak over time unfortunately
From what I’ve heard and seen, every skylight will leak at some point…
Modern designs really do not have meaningfully more susceptibility to leaking than the rest of the roofing system. It's so cheap now to manufacture elaborate plastic/metal counterflashing.
All older designs that relied on maintenance (caulking) being done regularly will obviously all leak without the proper maintenance. The same can be said for all the other roof fixtures--chimneys, vents, ductwork etc--that rely on caulking for weatherproofing.
It's so cheap now to manufacture elaborate plastic/metal counterflashing.
It's not the assemblies - we've always known how to make them water tight. It's the installers. And I can offer you first hand experience that they have not improved that part of the failure chain. ;-)
Most roofers can't install a skylight properly, I'll definitely agree, but the pane seals do fail on them, and it doesn't take nearly as long as a vertical window does.
I've removed a lot of twenty year old skylights that leaked through the glass seal.
For modern skylights, the actual seal for the glass to the frame is the fail point when installed properly, and they have a high rate of failure within 20 years.
It really depends on your design.
We have an old skylight that's just a dome. The dome sits on top of the flat roof, and the roof has a raised edge inside the dome that's coated with the same asphalt/tar substance as the rest of the roof. That dome doesn't even have to be sealed to the roof to be waterproof (it is advisable to seal it to limit heat loss though).
If you go for a fancy, flat design, that relies on silicones to keep it sealed, yes, that will leak at some point.
I've had houses with skylights for decades, never had a leak.
Skyscrapers would have a capacity problem as roof real estate is limited. It would be better suited for low rise office spaces.
I would love one in my office, for sure. It's an old building, also a warehouse, all the exterior walls are cinder block, and most of the offices are in the interior of the building, including mine. Throw in florescent lights and sickly beige walls and it gets boring.
Funny enough I do have windows in my office - just looking into the warehouse and a file room.
We have sunlights like this in my office and they're still surrounded by fluorescent fixtures that they won't let us turn off.
It’s almost like corporate America wants us low on sunlight, trapped and depressed. 🤔
It's not that deep the reason is because they cost money to install
It’s also not like it’s always sunny outside. Imagine the office on a rainy day I bet it’d be even more dreadful
I think that would be an added bonus. The light would shift with the weather and time of day and feel more natural.
I wonder how quickly snow makes this a moot point
Then you turn in the light bulbs…….
Then you have to install two sets of lights..
That's a given anyway, considering that nighttime is a thing. No regularly-used space could be entirely lit with sunlight only.
And yet we still spend money to install windows that are redundant with artificial lighting in virtually all buildings, because natural light is a good thing.
So the problem is money, not that it can rain…
Yes it seems wildly impractical to install two sets of lights whose usage depends on the weather
Why are people talking about the weather ...
It is if you are a penny pinching, money grubbing developer.
You're simultaneously the same person who would say developers only build luxury homes aren't you?
I literally have no idea what you mean and wouldn't say anything like that.
What right minded business person would willingly choose a smaller return on their investment and not build luxury homes?
This is the kind of thinking that reduces progress. If something isn't 100% effective 100% of the time it's not worth doing.
Dude, it only lets light in. It can't make the room overcast.
Or if you stop looking for a conspiracy everywhere you would notice that installing hundreds of meters of highly reflective tubing, to create a light source that will only work when it's sunny outside, is not the cleverest idea
Add in things like multi story buildings where every single floor would need it, roof top solar which would block the light, leaking domes that make the entire system less efficient and it becomes less and less interesting
Or from a different point of view, why do you not have it at home, is that the fault of corporate America as well?
Ah, the old " if it isn't a 100% effective solution for 100% of all situations then it is a trash idea" fallacy.
Why would corporate America want you depressed lol. Because they hate worker productivity? At least come up with better conspiracy theories.
Or use equivalent K rated light as neutral daylight and cycle it to create the illusion of natural daylight? Would be much cheaper to install and is already being mass produced.
Nothing beats sunlight and it's been being produced for four and a half billion years.
So we should then incorporate more sun in our daily lives then. Wake up early, go on a run and stuff
If by some chance it’s not suitable for you then try weekends.
If the sun isn’t around that much at your place (sucks to be bri’ish) Then ya done fked Up
If we weren’t buying vitamin D profits might be impacted!
Not an expert but my guess is they have their fair share of drawbacks as well. There may be an issue with thermal insulation. I imagine that those transfer some amount of heat from inside to the outside. Maybe you want that when snow is on the tunnels entrance but otherwise you don't really want to loose heat after spending a lot of money on insulation.
And maybe those things can only do so many turns until they loose light. So lighting a skyscraper with these could be impossible.
These tunnels also seem to have a fairly large diameter, so you can probably not fit these in the walls itself, making space a huge issue. Water pipes and such have a smaller diameter so these fit inside walls just fine but these tubes could be more problematic. So even if the light can reach the first floor of a skyscraper, where do you put the tubes? And do you need one entrance for every exit? If so, you'd need to build an entire roof with entrances.
Again: I'm no expert but if that all is true those seem to be only viable for top floors and personal housings. No matter how great they are. What I don't get is why there are no photovoltaic on every roof and above every parking lot. But that's another topic entirely.
One word, spiders.
Nah, the "solar tube" ones we have are sealed on both ends. No airflow, no spiders, no bugs.
You underestimate spider power.
Because this seems expensive..so only places built by the rich for the rich will ever have them
Not really that pricey. I have 3 in my house, $350 each which was more than worth it in my opinion to add so much natural light to some dark rooms. The commercial ones are more expensive, but still really reasonable in the grand scheme of construction. They more often get ve’d out due to coordination issues (can be difficult to fit utilities around them)
Did yours include a really long and wide tube from an exterior dome that was anywhere near as far away as depicted in the gif?
I think it came with an 8’ tube, but extensions were available for purchase, I think my longest is about 11’ with 2 45 degree bends. I’ve seen as far as 20’ and still very bright, but the bends can cause a significant decrease
I’m guessing $350 just for the materials? I can’t imagine getting a vendor to come out and cut a hole in a roof, reconfigure the tiles, do the necessary routing and interior drywall work and installation for less than $350.
I had a company install them in my first house, it was about $800 each all in if I’m remembering, but they aren’t difficult to install, so I did it on my second house with just my BIL to spot me while up on the roof.
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Pfffffftttt.
Lol right? This isn’t that hard to even install yourself. My dad did it in like… 1988. It’s just a tube of stuff you buy from bunnings/Home Depot.
“Woah! Natural light! Natural light reminds the employee’s that they have lives and families, we want to suppress that”
I imagine that for small offices this might work, but for larger, multifloored offices you're going to really quickly run out of space to run these things. I really love this as a concept, though.
This is pretty difficult to impossible to do for a multi-level building like most American office buildings. Anything over 2 floors is gonna start running out of space to run the tubes.
Expensive and take up a lot of room.
Because they're more expensive than LED lights.
Retrofitting costs
The alternative to these is LEDs which are already comically energy efficient and cheap to operate, what real benefit does this provide over those that isn't canceled out by the complexity of installation and risk of leaking?
I dig it but I could think of a few reasons:
It's difficult to build. If you have more than one story it's impossible or you will lose a ton of space making very wide tubes to put these on more than one floor. But for example for retail (like large supermarkets), that are opened during daylight hours, I think it could be great. Always helped with regular lighting ofc.
These are popular in Florida, go figure the sunshine state.. haha!
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They are great, until it rains, or it's night, or there's an eclipse, or Armageddon
to be fair, most things are great until armageddon
Wait, you have rain that stops?
Ok it's free light? Why is everyone botching about the sun not being out all the time? No shit Sherlock
That where the bomb ass hemp be? A place that you never find a dance floor empty?
I’ve only seen old poorly sealed skylights. Never these cooler contraptions. Maybe in some nature park bathrooms I’ve seen them.
Do they transfer significant heat as well?
Nope, hardly any at all
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Damn the bots are changing their style to cross site stealing
Good bot.
You not OP
Reminder reddit can easily detect these accounts and do something about it, but choose to do nothing because stolen and reposted content drives up their engagement.
OPs entire account is dedicated to advertising some shitty website likely infested with malware. They aren't even trying to hide it, it's literally front and centre on their profile description. It's a one month old account but with more karma than 90% of users.
Oh, and since the comment is posted on reddit, reddit allows other websites to directly take those comments without attribution.
Someone could spend hours researching and writing a tutorial, post it on their own professional website, an account like OPs steals it, and then some other shitty website steals it because reddit tells them it is fresh user generated content and they can take it - effectively allowing anyone to steal content and have their hands be squeaky clean in the eyes of the law.
Woah like money laundering, but for potentially copyrighted and/or intellectual property.
Makes sense too because this post is far from r/oddlysatisfying, but rather r/mildlyinteresting s it's just a bit posting in random subs
Good Bot
If you put plants underground they can still grow with one of these? There is no loss of UV light?
Plants don't necessarily need UV, they do need a good spectrum of light though, with photosynthesis using red and blue light
Put in this context really highlights how crazy it is plants sustain themselves with a wavy particle coming from millions of miles away.
they also need nutrients
Like Brawndo?
It's what the plants crave.
Water? Like, from the toilet?
Gatoradeeee
sponsored by Carl’s Jr.®
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Ovaltine.
Satire is great until real life becomes worse than the satire.
I wonder if these films really help server as a warning or just dilute our sense of WTF when things happen in real life.
When the movie aired, a lot of things an educated person would call satire under different circumstances were and had already happened. I'd say those kind of movies/books are more part of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon than a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Your poop
Yes, can't have one without the other.
Depends on the plant! Some just need sun, air, and water.
I don’t know enough about plants but that doesn’t sound right. All of my airplant varieties for example seem like they only need those 3, but they also obtain nutrients from their surroundings, they have little trichomes to get nutrients from the air
Carnivorous plants don't even need to be fed and live in nutrient deficient soil. They are perfectly fine growing without catching any bugs.
Well, that isn't false, but they get nutrients /from the air/. I didn't say that they only need CO2, water, and sunlight.
It's what plants crave
The more amazing thing (to me) is that they are almost completely made out of the carbon in the air. The sunlight gives them the power, but they're not turning sunlight into lettuce or a Christmas tree, they're using solar power to turn the air into lettuce or a Christmas tree.
This is my go-to fun random fact. Everyone knows plants produce oxygen but nobody thinks about what happens to the carbon.
As crazy as you sound saying "trees materialise out of this air" it always clicks when they realise the oxygen trees produce is literally just CO2 minus the carbon. They eat air.
Actually the O2 they make comes from water, it's an accidental byproduct of the process. The CO2 is turned into sugars for the plant.
This thread is a rollercoaster of ackshually
Actually, a roller coaster has to consist of at least…. Ahh just kidding.
Well the only power I ever feel in my life since my wife left me is correcting people about plants on Reddit so I need to take the opportunity when it comes up
oxygen is tree farts
I mean it's not just carbon from the air. They're growing out of soil. They're pulling nutrients out of the ground and bending them into something organic. I've always thought plants were fascinating as well. I have grow lights and there's something so cathartic about watching different types of plants grow from seed. You get this seed that's like 1mm wide tops... all it consists of is a genetic recipe and a very tiny bit of genetic kindling to start the fire. Then with just a little water and some dirt it ignites a chemical reaction defined by the dna inside the tiny tiny seed and within months your completely inanimate dirt turns into a massive sprawling plant.
Chili peppers are my favorite because every generation of seed is slightly different from the previous generation and the changes in the fruit are so apparent. People that don't garden think that a jalapeno seed is always going to produce an identical jalapeno plant, but every plant is going to be different unless they're surrounded by only other identical jalapeños. Even then, this years harvest is going to taste and look ever so slightly different from last year's harvest unless you're planting clones. Because they'll have a slightly different genetic composition. They're more like the dogs of the plant world in that they produce very distinctive offspring from themselves. I've gotten fairly different looking chilis planting seeds from the same packet of seeds even. One plant might have smooth skinned peppers while another might have rough skin, or one might be teardrop shaped while the other is habanero shaped... with seeds taken from the same parent plant. I love that I can combine my chilis and produce a type of chili pepper that is 100% unique to my garden and my tastes. And all of that from the same dirt, the only difference being a submicroscopic change in one little piece of genetic code.
It's all so fascinating to me, it truly is magical earthbending. Magic is all around us, even if we happen to understand it enough to label it "science".
I mean it's not just carbon from the air. They're growing out of soil. They're pulling nutrients out of the ground and bending them into something organic.
Right, that's why I said "almost completely".
But even then, while those nutrients are important, they make up almost nothing of the plant. For example, in this study of nitrogen intake, they found that the two plants they were studying had N concentrations of 6.43 mg/g and 16.45 mg/g, respectively. That's just 0.6% and 1.6% of the plants, respectively.
Edit: Sorry, that (and my other comment to another commenter) came off as a bit abrasive! Didn't mean it that way. Just chatting; not arguing.
Is that chemical composition not accounting for the water? Because water (taken from the soil) will compose 80-90% of the plants structure. Then there's phosphorus and potassium as well. 1.6% of the composition when 90% is water would be a quite significant number.
Is that chemical composition not accounting for the water?
It's after drying:
finally all plant materials were oven-dried at 60°C for 72 h, ground and analyzed for total N and 15N/14N ratios as mentioned above.
^(I'm a bot that converts temperature between two units humans can understand, then convert it to Kelvin for bots and physicists to understand)
Even if it included water weight, you could argue that fell out of the air too
Correct the water weight will outweigh solid matter in most plants and a tiny percentage of that water is the nutrients, which are essentially electrolytes.
That being said, all the solid mater, all the structure, the bones of the plant, the meat and potatoes you could say, all the plant you see with your eyes is, in its smallest form, it’s building blocks, is all carbon. This carbon is eatin out of the air thru the plants respiration.
I would argue, however, not to downplay those little amounts of nutrients. If you exclude water, humans are 0.8% Sodium and 1.6% Potassium, and we need those to have a nervous system. Chlorophyll requires nitrogen to produce, so a plant can't survive without it--and the N2 in the air is too hard to break up, so they have to use other sources.
It's still amazing what they do with so little of it, but nitrogen is the foundation of the being able to do those amazing things in the first place.
It's not much nutrients from the ground. People have grown plants in carefully-maintained soil, and weighted the dirt before and after. The change in soil mass is almost nothing.
That's really interesting. With peppers changing flavor over time, I wonder how they get really popular hot sauces like Sriracha to taste consistent year after year.
Well, chilis of the same spice level, for the most part, taste relatively similar once they're turned into hot sauce. Then at the scale of huge factory farms there's very little genetic diversity. There's inevitably going to be genetic drift, but its in such small increments that its hardly noticeable. Compare a jalapeno in '21 to one in '20 and it will look identical, but a jalapeno from 1970 will be noticeably different.
Except they also need water and electrolytes, but still very impressive!
That's why I said "almost completely".
I guess by weight they're probably more water than carbon (depends on the plant, of course), but the solid matter is almost all taken from the air. There's a few minerals and nutrients from the roots, but the carbon far outweighs it.
Edit: Sorry, that came off as a bit abrasive! Didn't mean it that way. Just chatting; not arguing.
Didn't read the almost completely, my bad! And excuse my ignorance, I actually didn't know they took the carbon out of the air, that's really fascinating!
wavy particle
I like this turn of phrase. Snappy way to pack up a whole lot of complexity.
warticle
That evokes more of a "genital warts" kind of idea for me
Should have caught it, might be high. Wavy particle it is, then.
Although now I think genital warts should be referred to exclusively as warticles.
The wavy things just power the reactions that turn the carbon in the air into energy for the cells to use to grow
I was literally thinking this exact thought as I saw your comment
Yo
Life, uh, finds a way
Put in this context really highlights how crazy it is plants sustain themselves with a wavy particle coming from millions of miles away.
I mean...that's how virtually all life sustains itself.
"That just sounds like photosynthesis with extra steps."
Well that's how plants sustain themselves and practically everything else alive just smooches or assists that work with varying amount of steps.
Thanks!
The more you learn.
Wrong, ficus use only blacklight
Got a source for that? Photosynthesis doesn't use UV
Selfishly poking fun at the post you replied to suggesting UV. Tried to come off as overly confident while entirely incorrect. Should have put /s. Your to kind.
Who would do that? Just go on the internet and lie!
But hey, I'm no expert, I'd be happy to learn if I'm wrong
You're still getting the total sunlight of the surface that's catching the light, but with the right plants they'll grow wonderfully (and for some applications wonderfully slowly and low maintenance).
Frankly people underestimate plants. It takes someone experienced with horticulture to pick the right plants but if done right you'll have incredibly low maintenance plants that fit the space wonderfully and genuinely improve the environment in meaningful ways.
Legitimately if you're already spending the money to heat an environment through the winter you should absolutely be stocking it with plants appropriate for your light level and how much you care to water them. Since my mother has started showering me with plants going into every winter (because otherwise she couldn't fit them indoors and they'd die) I've noticed a serious and meaningful improvement to my mental health.
Thanks! I’ve had plants before but they either died or attracted millions of fruit flies. They laid their eggs in the soil or something
Fungus gnats! They're a pain and a fairly common houseplant pest. I had an outbreak earlier this year and the only thing that helped was watering my plants with water treated with a mosquito dunk. I just bought the dunks from a big box store, put one to soak in a bucket of water and used that water for the next month whenever it was time to give the plants a drink. Took care of them fairly quickly. I've also killed my fair share of plants but if you like them, don't give up! I have around 40 now and they definitely bring me joy.
I’ll see if I can get hold of some of that. I’ve never heard of it before. At the time I searched on YouTube and all it showed me was people making traps and I didn’t really want a jar of dead flies chilling in my house
They can grow with regular LED lamps
That would depend on the plant and the emitter.
Asking for a friend.
UV is as harmful to plants as it is to humans
Learned that the hard way when I grew an apple tree. It was doing well until I decide to give it some sun. When I came back from the shop it had wilted and then died
You aren’t slick bot
oh hello fellow korean. ㅎㅎ
(ㅎ ͜ʖㅎ)
(ㅇㅂㅇ)
You are speaking to a bot
As someone living in Seoul, i did not know this. Neat! Thanks
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Trying to get gold for yourself? Your comment history is something else.
Damn posted like 40 times and actually received some gold too. I mean if that's how he wants to spend his Thursday evening, sure.
"I'm too poor for gold" comments are cringiest shit ever.
Fax
Yes, an interesting comment history indeed. People are weird.
It's working apparently. 25 posts of this exact comment in the last few hours. Hundreds of upvotes, and dozens of awards and gold.
I guess reddit really is just a formula. You see the same top comments everywhere regardless of the post, the same replies to those comments, and bad puns that don't actually contribute.
Ugh.
Where? Is this on the newer lines like shin Bundang? The old lines definitely still do fluorescent.
You need 6500K fluorescent bulbs for the plants, not complicated. Also this costs a ton of money.
Oh gee, those silly engineers that are building subway stations in Korea...
I bet they'll feel reaaall dumb when you send them an e-mail to explain how their problem could have been solved so easily.
Here in UK we use these sun tunnels to make our houses darker, in case your plants need some natural clouds and darkness.
Here in the US we have piles of homeless guy shit. You'd think that's no good, but it really compliments the piss smell.
This is the low tech version. My parents have had some in their house for over 30 years.
There are some high tech version that use sun tracking concentrating collectors on the roof that pull the light into fiber optic cables for delivery deep into the building.
I have lived in Korea for 15 years. 어디서 보셨나요?
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Nuka Quantum
This is really cool! I do wonder if it would do damage over time if you live in an area where it would freeze and thaw repeatedly.
Replace the water with ethanol, it freezes at -114°C. It probably also has the same refractive properties as water too, and won't get anything growing in it.
I had three installed in my house last month. They’re amazing.
What’s that run a person?
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Thanks for the info fellow east coaster!
Reminds me of the old movie legend with Tom Cruise and the unicorns where they use mirrors to beat the evil lord underground with sunlight.
Legend. Love that film.
These are super common in Australia. We call them skylights and they come in all different shapes and sizes.
Some the light travels through a tube and comes out through a flange/screen fixed to the ceiling. Some are literally big glass windows built into the roof and the ceiling stays open.
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Whaaaaaa?
Great, now I can get sunburned indoors too
The glass filters out UV, so no sunburns. Same thing with windows.
Will it make the room hotter ?
I live in the tropic and never seen this irl. And if the answer is no, why?
Nah the metal for the tubes usually is a heat sink meaning the tube in your attic will be warm but it won’t pass down into the house unless it’s a cheap product
Most likely. I doubt these block IR
Does the glass filter out UVA as well?
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I have 3 in my house, and they are pretty damn bright, much brighter than the light bulbs
I dunno my sisters one was like a portable sun it was so bright.
So bright you have trouble switching the thing off when it’s sunny at 4am…
A sheet of cardboard solves this issue
Not exactly the most portable/reusable solution.
Why does it need to be portable?
Fasten one side of cardboard to the ceiling. Fasten the other side to the ceiling with a hook, or some other means that allows you to detach that side from the ceiling... Or, put in tracks on either side of the light to allow you to slide the cardboard over the light hole when you don't want light.
Either method will be a lot easier than trying to switch the sun off.
switch the sun off
Man it's like you're speaking to me at 5am with a hangover :D
If it was portable it probably used electricity
The term portable sun refers to any light source that emits a ridiculously bright amount of light, don’t take it too seriously :)
Do you are have stupid?
they cannot brain today,
they have the dumb
If it was a sun, even a portable one should turn hydrogen into helium with fusion, so electricity wouldn't be a problem.
No shit
Welcome to marketing
Thanks for the silver stranger 😂
Sure they do. Had one in a previous house looked just like that...
Playing right into SCP-001's melted chimera hands.
This sounds like a window with extra steps.
I remember a documentary about a third world country. In an area with small houses built one right next to another, the residents had to use electricity all day to see in their house.
What they did was drill holes on the ceiling and insert plastic bottles filled with water. It worked great.
All I can think of is this being great when we can no longer live on the surface of our planet anymore
Tolkien Dwarves have been doing this for thousands of years, have you not seen The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring documentary on the Mines of Moria ?
the idea that these are called solatubes and not sunnels is a real portmanteau-tally missed opportunity if you ask me.
So.... skylights? Little bitty baby skylights?
Skylights? They have been a thing for literally thousands of years.
That's just skylights with extra steps.
This is old hat. Been using this idea for decades in Australian dugouts.
And thousands in Egypt.
Yep, solar tubes…oh sorry, I mean sUnTuNnElS , because marketing.
Sometimes, we do new with old.
Another example is streetcar. It has been around for over a century. In France, it was abandoned around the 50's before being reintroduced 40 years later. Now, everyone wants it.
Egyptian use it thousands years ago.🤦🏻♂️
Aziz, LIGHT!
I learned about it from the mummy. I assumed most of that movie was not accurate. Good to know they did their research on some of it.
Got 20 minutes? Egyptologist critiques "The Mummy"
The same concept has been in use on sailing ships for ages too! The last boat I sailed on had several of these in the form of glass prisms essentially with the flat end on top lying flush with the deck and the lower point end sticking out of the ceiling below deck. They are shockingly effective.
The OP Hanyul95 is a bot
Literally everything it posts is copied from somehwere else.
This post + top comment copied from: https://9gag.com/gag/axBjRDn
This doesn't fit the sub, op is obviously a bot, yet it somehow has 13k upvotes. I don't get it.
Old ships had a quartz or some stone for the same reason! cool indeed
Windows be like.... (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
cries in Seattle
In my brief foray in architecture school, I got shot down for suggesting these!
Does it work at night?
I've seen these on the roofs of some buildings (from an angle) and always thought they were weird motors of something
Oh yeah, these are quite common in New Zealand.
I need this in a hobbit hole with wifi and im all set
The Amish have been using these for years in Pennsylvania. I see them in their stores.
Quite common here in Australia, especially in houses built in the last 20-30 years I've noticed
It's a thermal bridge so it might cost more carbon via extra heating than you save in lighting.
You can also keep a LED bulb on every day of your life for the installation cost, but I guess natural light is nice.
I like the concept but here in northern Sweden it would be pretty useless. Now, during winter, the sun is up for about an hour every day. In summer, it's up 24/7.
And besides you're at work or school for the bright hours anyway.
I go to work, its dark, i leave work, it's still dark. sigh
I worked for a builder that installed them...always problems and pissed-off owners. The part that passes through the attic area is not insulated ( very thin gauge metal) so it is a large cold or hot conduit into the living area. If they are not extremely well-sealed( tin tape) they will fill with flies...well dead ones...not to mention breaking the vapor barrier of your attic and roof.
Again cool concept but ....
I worked for a builder that installed them...always problems and pissed off owners and I was the one that had to fix the installers mistakes not to mention trying to insulate the tube
Years ago I saw videos of poor areas where people simply use plastic soda bottles to do this.
Aziz, LIGHT!
I have a small, dark house built in the 1950s. I have three of these; kitchen, living room, and in front of the bathroom door. I want to put in one more. They add a nice amount of daylight, and have really increased my enjoyment of my home.
We have these in a lab space. All they really do is take the edge off the darkness. We can black out the lab and use just 5 or 6 of these, and all they do is let you see the furniture. You couldn’t easily read a book or do something like sewing in there.
All these comments lol. I used to install these. They don't work
This looks like something the ancient Greeks would've figured out.
I like it.
Now I can get sunburned inside! Neat!
arr, me ship be havin 6 of them light crystals, me crew is happier now that they won't be havin to squint to see below deck!
They do something similar in the Philippines with plastic beverage bottles in homes with sheet metal roofing and the like.
Have on in my bathroom. So many people think it’s a light and flip the switch to turn it off, only to be blinded by the real light turning on 😂
YOU MEAN A SUNNEL?
Office I worked in had these, we forgot to turn on the lights with some frequency they worked so well
Would you need to wear sunscreen indoors then?
Legend showed us this was the best way to defeat Darkness.
If you can, you always want to avoid drilling or installing anything to your roof, as this creates a weak spot and increases the chances of your roof leaking.
Never heard them called sun tunnels nor seen the elaborate one in the example video. I know them as solar tube. My mom had one in her old house? The one in the hallway would cast a rainbow at a certain time in the day. She got so.e put in in her new place. Makes me want a ranch house.
Pyramids used this tech thousands of years ago
Not bad, but you're gonna be fucked when trying to navigate in the dark.
Ancient Egyptians: 👁👄👁
Shoulda called em sunnels
confused canadian noises
They are very neat and add a ton of natural light but can be pricy and my office has them and they leak.
They are as old as the pyramids. Skylights were a thing just five years ago. The idea of sending sunlight via mirrors into dark spaces like basements is really not new, and was pushed in the 1970s as a low cost lighting options.
You can tell the people posting here who are either not homeowners or who have never worked in construction of one variety or another.
People are asking why these are not more common... simple, the first rule of trying to prevent a leaky roof is not to add penetrations into that roof.
You are asking for trouble if you have a 1/2 dozen of these things going through your roof structure. I love natural sunlight as much as the next person, but just looking at the photo that was posted makes me cringe.
Yeah that's definitely the reason. It's not that this is just an extremely niche product that has limited use cases and requires a lot of space in cavity routes that might not even be available or where they are available be routes that are too thin and with too frequent 90° turns (which devastate effectiveness) to be functional.
It's definitely that everyone knows about it and has a use for it but are trying to prevent a leaky roof. And of course the best way to do that is to not tempt lady fate by *gasp* installing roof fixtures. Because there is just no way to do that properly. You have to do it improperly with systems that rely on the maintenance of caulking joints and you obviously have to neglect the maintenance as well. No well thought out flashing and counterflashing systems for us humans available yet. Just a bunch of improperly installed and/or neglected roof fixtures for us contemporary humans. Maybe future humans will have it better.
I found the person who isn't a homeowner.
Please do explain to the rest of us why you think this poorly advertised and wildly impractical and expensive lighting solution is not more frequently used because of water penetration concerns rather than because of how wildly impractical and disproportionately expensive it is compared to other lighting solutions.
Where did you get that idea from?
How could you possibly stick with that idea upon further consideration?
The only times I've seen this used it's practically purely as a flex/conversation piece/cute quirk and done as part of massive renovations or during the original construction of the home.
If you really think the answer to "Why are these not more common?" is "Because of the potential for water penetration" then I'm simply speechless.
Breaking news! This just in!!
Skylights use light from the sky to illuminate the interior of buildings!
More at 9..
I'm aware of skylights, but I've never seen them be anything other than windows on the roof. This is different, and I can't recall being in a building that has something like this.
These are great for rooms without windows
The solatube?
not exactly mind blowing technology is it? lol
[deleted]
They are just as useful as windows, so they work even on cloudy days, just not as bright. I’ve got one in my laundry, even on the stormiest of days it provides enough light for anything I need in there
Are these the same as skylights? Pretty common in Australia.
Although sun tunnels sound rad, and skylights sound like a dummy talking about stars.
I thought the same. I have a couple of skylights in my house in Australia. One is just a straight down tube with a diffuser the other is slightly bent with reflective inner. It never occurred to me that it was anything special.
Now imagine having part of your home in a shady area and bringing sun light from the non-shady area to the shady area.
I fail to come up with better uses of this tech.
They're both the same in the sense of directing sunlight into the house for lighting. The key difference is that a traditional skylight is of course just a window pane that light directly passes through. Sun tunnels AKA solar tubes AKA tubular skylights have a key difference in that they can bring in light over much longer distances because they ~~refract~~ reflect light internally through the tube from the roof all the way through an attic (or multiple stories of a building) until it reaches the endpoint of the tube at the ceiling, similar to light traveling through a fiberglass tube.
Ahhh thanks for the clarification
Tunnels reflect light internally, only lenses refract light.
Thanks, corrected. To be more pedantic, any kind of medium change can refract light, like water to air. :)
They are easier to install, no framing, less failure points, and easier to waterproof, and can diffuse light better to a space. And cheaper. Can fit around obstacles. But you can’t see the sky.
I worked with a contractor whose build some of these and decidedto stop (probably not this exact model but the same system)...according to him these are kind of a gimmick. They look really cool in the animation brochure though.
If you put solar panels under such domes, wouldn't it be more efficient than just having them set in 1 direction?
What I find interesting is we haven't quite figured out how to make lights feel completely natural.
Like you can have a bright light, but something feels different compared to sunlight.
Is it the colour?, the brightness?, some radiation/different frequency?
Any penetration you put in your roof is just asking for future water damage. Every time no exceptions.
This shit has been around FOR YEARS.
We have windows here in the US.
This is obviously meant for areas where windows aren’t possible, dude.
Like inside big buildings or underground parking garages. Like in the promo video.
It’s like a window with extra steps
Yeah, skylights aren't new
Why aren’t these standard everywhere?!?!?
This would’ve made every office job I’ve ever had, less depressing.
It’s almost like corporate America wants us to be depressed and trapped. 🤔
They can be a pain to install in commercial building because of how much stuff is often in the ceiling space, plus they only work on the floor right below the roof, unless the arch designs in chases to allow them through, which is rare and annoying to do, and they you get into framing holes through floors, and having to fire rate them. It becomes a huge hassle in multi story buildings. They are great when they can be used, but there are limitations.
Also can create leaks
Because they don't work when it's overcast or raining
They still work, just not as brightly.
If that's OK then just switch the lights off in the office instead.
You'll still need lights, just less lights.
Has anyone seen the movie Legend with Tom Cruise? Because that movie is where this idea came from.
Definitely. Egyptians loved that movie.
I’ve seen these and thought there were electric lights before someone corrected me.
Oh yeah I saw that in the manga "Space Brothers"
Ooooh this is great!
light source when we have to go underground
When day breaks fan’s worst nightmare
I need these as my night lights!
I installed one of these for a customer a few years ago. It certainly brightened up the dark hallway, but I didn't like how the lens refracted(?) the light. It created a lot of small bright spots, almost like a mini disco ball, instead of the nicely diffused glow shown in the video.
Refract is right. And that's certainly a problem, once you make light directional it's hard to get it nicely diffuse especially when you don't want to compromise brightness.
Jokes on you, we have winter nine months out of the year and rain the other three. Summer is 45 minutes long.
Would it be theoretically possible to condense the light down into a small piece of fibre instead of using a large tube?
A lot of intensity would be lost without a very complicated mirror system. And then you need another complicated expensive system if you want to make the light diffuse in the destination.
I used one of these in a house I used to own where the one small bathroom window had to be closed up in a renovation.
Worked out really well.
"Well, that sucks." -Vampires
The roof of the LDS Conference Center has giant light pyramids that channel sunlight down onto the stage. (also the roof is a park)
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7729426,-111.8919797,140m/data=!3m1!1e3
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/LDS_Conference_Center_interior_panoramic.jpg/2880px-LDS_Conference_Center_interior_panoramic.jpg
It's an amazing building. The auditorium has no pillars obstructing the view of the stage.
Neat!! It's the same principle behind glass fiber
What do they do at night?
Isn't this just a skylight?
Glorified ceiling windows
Take that, vampires! HA!
I want the job of cleaning those domes!
Finally! My bunker will be complete!
That's neat.
Can be combined with vent fans so good for bathrooms. Well, at least good for my bathroom.
I’ve got a couple of these in my house. Was 1/10 of the price of a skylight!
I have one in a bathroom in my house and people always try to turn the light off when they leave it for the first time! I never use the light fixtures in the day, it’s wonderful.
I install them, ask me anything.
Preparation for the inevitable
I've wanted these for frikken decades.
My folks had them in their kitchen and living room because the window light was reduced due to the addition of an enclosed patio. These work amazingly well providing natural light to darker rooms. The only time they aren’t great is during an electrical storm when they flash with the lightning and scare the sh*t out of you!
Why don't they use fibre optics, for storage saving?
The Egyptians did this
Now man is just making fake moon tunnels!
Pyramids had this long ago. Old tech making it’s way back…
Great concept until god turns the lights off
I have a couple, interestingly the installation instructions strongly advised a maximum tunnel length of something like 3m (10ft) and a maximum pipe bend of 90degree with no single bends over 45 degree to get decent performance. Something this video seems to have failed at one both counts.
Any other stuffs like this that are good for homes?
I was wondering if something like this is possible but for driving light and energy to something like a solar collector for energy
These types of lights are used for lighting basements. You'll see the prisms embedded into sidewalks from over a century ago in a lot of cities
Must be nice
These are common in Australia. Have two in my house and you hardly notice they are there. Certainly an improvement and hassle free but no substitute for an actual light lol.
Also all the comments here saying it’s always cloudy, what kind of miserable place do you live in?
My boyfriends parents have 2 of these in their living room and its absolutely great!
Had one put into an internal (no windows) upstairs bathroom - game changing!
"Sky holes."
This is how they did it in Moria.
We'll need them after we all have to live underground after the war
In dubitably
Many old jails have had these retrofitted to their roofs after studies showed the negative effect of lack of natural sunlight had on inmates mental health.
Was this not used in ancient cave systems in the southern sahara? pretty sure it's ancient technique
Sunlight lore
The only problem with these is that you can't turn them off to save energy.
Effin', delivered.
What happens at night?
One of the bathrooms In my house has one, when I bought the place it was winter here and it was ok…now it’s summer it’s amazingly bright! Thinking of having more added,
I've seen these before in big old stately homes. So it's pretty old tech. Great idea though.
Vampires hate this one weird trick!
I have on in my hallway and it feels like a third light bulb !
Mournings end part 1-2-3 etc.
Didn’t some guy in Brazil do this with a 2L coke bottle filled with water?
Great for dungeons
I'm going to get one that connects to my arsehole.
u/savevideo
Would not work in Scotland
Aziz light!
I just have one question, how is the heat controlled here?
ANOTHER HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON
So that’s what they are for!
I'm sitting under one right now! It works great, makes my bathroom very bright and sunny now.
Reminds me of Legend with Tim Curry…. Innocence…. INNOCENCE
I'm at work and it's a cloudy day, but we still can't go home...
How does it work? Fiber optics?
What do you do when the sun sets? Having backup lights seem a bit redundant?
Is this what Egyptians used?
Now show us what happens when it's overcast or raining.
Modern light bulbs are unbelievably efficient. I have a hard time believing this makes economic or environmental sense, especially since there always needs to be conventional infrastructure to light the building during the night.
Heating / Cooling on the other hand...
Why it's not mounted on every solar panel to give best results?
We put one of these in 20 years ago, with an inbuilt fluorescent globe. It's good, but was expensive.
We just renovated, and we installed solar-powered LED skylights, that attach to the grid. They run on solar power when the sun's out, and use the power grid when it's not. There's also a switch and a dimmer.
They're cheaper, better, more versatile, don't compromise the ceiling installation, and don't collect dead moths.
E.g. Redilight
if you live in northern germany this might help about 4 months of the year ://// damn i need to get out of here
They definitely do not work that well.
I would love one of these in our dark kitchen, but we have a two story house. Bummer.
u/SaveVideo
LED Bulbs are cheaper and better
A new building that needs a light tunnel is poorly planned.
Bro Egyptians did this thousands of years ago, did you see “The Mummy”?
I was talking to a dude who grows weed indoors and asked him if it's be worth to install skylights or some kind of mirror system for free energy and he looked at me like I was crazy. Well here's my idea in action and I wish I would have kept it to myself and patented it.
Skylights have been a thing for thousands of years.
Fairly sure this is how the hard light in Portal works
Yet another thing that I invented but didn't patent. At least people will get to enjoy them because heck knows I never would've made it happen.
And heat!!
Cloud pass by to block the sun for a min, every one in the building is blind for 1 min
Science project in 1970... used the strings from the clothesline... yeah new tech...
Fascinating. Do tell us more
These days they sell the $20 Chinese made lamp which looks like light dots, it’s the same concept, need more? The light travels through the fiber. Fiber optics for data is similar concept, need more?
But does it work at night though
They glow with moon light if it’s bright enough, and I can see lightning flashes with mine. They also can come with solar powered night lights, charge in the day, give enough light at night to not run into things, or get a glass of water.
Ah man a thunderstorm would be so cool with those but also sounds like it could be horror-film-terrifying.
I can see lightning flashes with mine
Wowwwww that's actually super creepy for some reason.
Yes
get skin cancer, indoors, without even knowing!
If they are highly reflective couldn't that cause a fire? I know just having a mirror face a window at an angle is a fire hazard.
No, they don’t focus light, anymore than a window does
Suntunnels? Oh you mean windows!
Confused unga bunga
Wait till it hails
I’m certainly no scientist, but I’m curious, if we can capture the light for such a great, fossil fuel free, method of transference, is it possible to do the same with the sun’s heat without having to generate electricity in between?
Do you heat your house in the summer? No? Well then it is capturing the sun's heat quite effectively when available.
The NYC low line
This doesn't work if your whole city is the dark space. Cries in Seattle winter
Great thing for the ‘ole survival shelter……./s
“Learned about lately”. Solatube has been selling these for decades. I put a few in an animal shelter almost 20 years ago and they weren’t a new idea then. They are pretty great though…
Wicked cool
Sooo… can I get a tan at my desk? Or need to wear sunscreen?
Shingled residential roof and then show commercial spaces…
Sounds like it wouldn't help much in the winter. Both because of Snow and also because the day ends so much earlier, though I can see them being very useful closer to the equator than the poles.
Aziz! Light!!
When you neeeed NaTuRaL light but you’re an absolute mole living in a network of shipping containers under Walmart waiting for doomsday mcfucktheworld we are China. Hurry your ass up Russia. While the seats still warm.
Am I the only one who watched The Mummy?
This is just an expensive version of a bottle of water stuck in the ceiling they use in developing nations
Nice, now employers can put you in the basement while also adhering to natural light regulations
Wait till these guys hear about electrical lighting. /S
Thats how the Egyptians did it
Can i get one installed over Spain tunnelling to the UK?
UK has plenty of sun
I’ve got one of these in my bathroom! It’s lights up the room a surprising amount. When I first moved in I thought it was a light that was always on, and was confused why it was still glowing when the power tripped.
Do you have to wear sunscream indoors?
So, sun tunnels is just a fancy word for roof window?
This reminds me of the Dinotopia books!
I once saw Tom Cruise use this technique on Dave Grohl in a documentary called Legend
You’ve had this month. Legend
I need those in my minecraft build.. Torch spam doesn't look good
Fill a bottle with water and make a hole for it in your roof, works the same way.
They sell light kits to install in them too if it's not enough light for you. Which in my opinion is stupid...but to each their own I guess
Genshin players rejoice!
We had a dark halfway in my parents house that had rooms either side and doors at the end (product of 2 extensions over the years on a small house) was super dark all the time always needed lights on not matter the time of day so got these and made a huge difference.
"These bridges are made from natural light that I pump in from the surface. If you rubbed your cheek on one, it would be like standing outside with the sun shining on your face. It would also set your hair on fire, so don't actually do it."
u/redditdownloader
We call these ‘skylights’ in Australia and they’re quite popular!
They’re not even close to being that bright but they do work.
Makes a good lightning storm way more impressive.
Just wait till you find out about windows...
Vista
Linux...because I'm a contrarian.
Wait, these have been a thing for over 20 years...
Does it come with benefits of the sun as well?
u/reddit-download
Save the video to your device's local storage.
I have one in my kitchen. It's great. Mine also has a low-wattage solar lamp in it so it functions as a night light after dark. Only cost like $700 to have it installed.
well that just sounds like a sky light with exter steps/j
My grandparents house had a bunch of those. Really quite nice. Only house I've ever been in that had any.
Woow I'm 32 and I had no idea about Sun tunnels 🤯
All of the sun, none of the heat. They work great.
I would’ve never guessed these would work. These domes seem smaller than the lamps inside, not to mention the the loss in the tube. I’d think you’d need some parabolic dishes to collect the light
Sunnels.
They did this in The Mummy!
Wouldn’t be able to use the VR until night
Haven't seen these since the 80's.
Just where I'd want bright natural light that can't be turned off, in a theater room
I installed on my parents roof so they can have light in the upstairs bathroom since it didn't have any windows.
For 2 years my dad would yell at me thinking I left the light on...
They work!
Wouldn’t you have to clean these often? I mean if they just sit there they would collect dust and slowly make the light darker right?
Doesn't work.
I have three of them in my house.
They are cool. You can also put a switched light source inside the tube and use them as regular lights at night.
Omg i been loking for something like this. Definitely gona make it
Eventually were all gonna be living underground with these as our only source of sunlight while the rich live on the surface, like Coruscant or some shit
They aren’t that great
I wonder how expensive it is though
Dwarves have known this technology for eons
They also work for creating a frustratingly expensive to control water feature. In your house
Jesus wouldn’t it be cheaper to use lighting that mimics sunlight lol
sunlight isn’t magic and it may take a few bulbs to replicate the full spectrum but that must still be a hell of a lot cheaper than piping it around underground
I have three in my house. They’re awesome!
These bridges are made from natural light that I pump in from the surface. If you rubbed your cheek on one, it would be like standing outside with the sun shining on your face. It would also set your hair on fire, so don't actually do it.
Sunburns, but indoors
Useless, I live in the UK!!
looks cheaper to just use a lightbulb...
They work so well they have a light kit to buy to put in, you guessed it, a regular light bulb.
I mean, they do work. Installed a bunch of them in my time as a roofer. But, they aren't as bright as it would make you believe, especially if you do have bends in the tube in the attic.
Can you get sunburned from these?
Sky lights have lasted forever….
They probably suffer from poor insulation and can be leaky.
It’s a skylight, chill out
Yep. We've got on in out big hallway. It's great! No need for turning hallways lights on. We rarely use them. 👍🏽
And then the sun goes down
We obviously want to see the inside result now.
saw these on this old house.
My wife keeps trying to turn off the lights in our new living room, but the light is supplied by solar tubes like these lol
So somebody watched The Mummy and decided to get rich.
I have 2 in my kitchen :)
Its called a skylight in Arizona. Tons of homes have them. How is this new?
Night:comes People:vere ligt
Wow what a great invention
Had these in our house all over, people definitely were always looking for the switch before learning what they were. Awesome amount of light especially in an older house that had them fitted in the ~80s or so
Maybe a stupid question but can you get sunburnt from the light directed through these tunnels?
I just would worry about the leaks
Learned about these from the latest brutalmoose video!
My parents have had one in their house for about 20 years, they work
Now vampires can hide indoors
As a ginger this scares me…. So now I gotta wear sunscreen inside now too
I thought it was the angry dome.
Have designed these into several homes in the past. Problem is all the extra roof penetrations opening up more chances for leaks. Plus they don't look great.
Lmao. A sun tunnel. A skylight with an extra tube, and they make a whole new name for it.
The Japanese employ these in their office settings. Since a lot of people go to work in big corporate complexes, they pipe in the light so that the employees' circadian rhythm stays accurate.
We had one installed in our new house we’re building into our master bedroom walk in closet. It was the only room in the whole second level without an exterior window so I researched and found these. Instantly knew it was perfect and I was right! It lets in a ton of sunlight into a smaller room with no other natural day light, I think we’re gonna love it!
Does this alter the light in any way? Like filter the uv light?
Fishman island is way ahead of yall on this, hate to break it to ya
As someone who grew up with some in his house, they’re not that cool. Kinda like having shitty windows on the ceiling
Solatube International
This thing turns sunlight into lasers!?
Oh my goodness It’s there … hidden…”
Sounds like a sun roof with extra steps
Cool idea. But what happens when they get dirt and dust in them? Do they come with self cleaning mechanisms?
You flush the toilet or something.
I’d be interested to know how the embodied energy cost of manufacturing one of these stacks up to just using an LED light for 30 years. LEDs use an insanely small amount of energy. The same can not be said of manufacturing and transporting steel tubes. I saw these in Popular Mechanics like 20 years ago and I always wanted them. Then affordable LEDs came out, and I’m not sure they’re nearly as beneficial as they once were.
On the other hand, natural light is pretty sweet, and there’s probably something to be said for their ability to keep natural circadian rhythms from going haywire, provided that you don’t just turn on lights when the sun starts going down.
Op is a karma farmer. Just reposts other posts.
The movie “Legend” with Tom Cruise. Same principle
Sunnels!!
Wait until you hear about a light bulb
Honey!!! I want sun tunnels for Christmas!!
Doesn't work...light diminishes
I saw these roll out about 13-14 years ago but never really took off. The “ductwork” makes it a significant enough pain in the ass to implement as the ceiling space is typically cluttered enough
Yah gl sealing and maintaining those roof penetrations!
Hella cool I know what I need for my apocalypse bunker sweet sweet sunlight
My moms an elementary school teacher and her school had a renovation to install dozens of these, don’t known what the numbers are but I can imagine they’re saving a good chunk of money not having the lights on 8hrs/day 5days/week every school year
Really cool during thunder storms at night too. I put one in and wish I’d done more.
I put one in a shower that doesn't have a window, I believe the ultraviolet light helps keep the mold down
I have one in my hallway, entryway and master bathroom and love them. It's also cool to see faint blue light coming through in the early morning/late evening.
I installed these for a few years. They show it taking a 90 degree turn which is honestly a big no no. This is due to light refraction and distance traveled, you simply won’t get them that bright without them being more direct. Cool product though called SolaTubes
Austrians will love that.
Didn't we all learn this method in 1985
Hey, it worked for Tom Cruise in Legend when he defeated Darkness.
My last house had these, took a time of adjusting to moments of "Why did the lights suddenly go dim?" Clouds. They're called clouds.
Windows with extra steps.
r/damnthatsinteresting
My high school had these. Albeit it was about 10 years ago, but unless the tech has improved dramatically they’re mostly useful as a supplementary, not primary light source.
Pyramids mannnn
Cool. I wonder if you can achieve the same intent using fibre optic cables to route the sunlight from ceiling to the room.
u/savevideo
oh yeah. we had two of these installed in our (SE-facing) kitchen with small windows a few weeks ago, and what a difference! i still sometimes think someone forgot to turn the lights off and in MN, it brings welcome daylight to dark rooms.
if anyone reading this is considering installing these, don't forget to get the solar-powered nightlight (or dimmer, if you go that route) feature. this will automatically allow you to claim the 26% federal tax credit for the whole thing.
several brands exist; we opted to go with solatube over velux because they use rigid metal tubes.
Well, and when it rains. How this actually works?
Cool idea! These used to exist on wooden ships before electricity was available.
I'm gonna say it, I hate light bulbs..... unless there RGB.
That is very interesting
u/savevideobot
We used these when building out a warehouse at my old job. They work and look great
But what happens on cloudy/dark days? Can I still get enough light in the room?
....it's literally a skylight. They have been around since humans started building fucking houses.
??
Skylight, Sun tunnels, wonderful.
This issue might be fixed but things like that used to be a water leak nightmare
Just gonna say this. Five years ago when i sold fiber internet connections for companies, i had this exact same idea, though not using mirroring effects but fiber optics..
So one more lost chance for me to have done something innovative before.
They've been sold at Menard's and Lowe's for like fifteen years.
Yeah, i guess i was already late:D
But!!?? Was that made from optic fibers
No, but neither is this. It's made of that optical fiber called "light in a pipe made of sheet metal" 😂
Sunnels
In Brazil we use transparent roof tile. And works the same 👍
"How did you get a sunburn? You work in the basement!"
I wanted to do this with weed and sketched up a design for something like this that funnels light but that’s as far as I got
That just sounds like a lightbulb with extra steps, also you can't turn it off.
We have these in our office. I hate them. The light is ... Different. It's far too bright
I had one in my bedroom because my old room didn't have windows, I loved lying on bed and watching the clouds through the little tunnel
Have two of them in my house…
Work wonderfully… until covered in snow… like now.
Never heard it called a sun tunnel. We know them as solar tubes.
If you shine bright lights at the inside fixtures, does it make the big crystal balls on top of the house glow at night?
I always thought those on things in the roof are vents🗿
Sun tunnel? We just call them "long ass windows"
Didn’t the Egyptians use things like this in their pyramids? Seems like this idea’s been around for centuries.
Could you find a way to concentrate it and make a stream so concentrated it can instantly power anything aimed at a solar panel
Those seem like a sealing/leaky nightmare.
Thicc fiber optic
Isn't this the beginning to how hard light bridges are made?
The mother-in-law has three. When she had them installed, we all stood underneath trying to judge if in fact they made the room any lighter.
Consensus - probably, but not really!
The UK is grey AF.
Skin cancer go brrrr
Can outdoor plants grow indoors this way? Isit just the light, or are the UV rays brought in too?
Imagine having to wear sunscreen inside your home.
Shits been around for 1000s of years
UK-ppl are not a fan of these.
Would these help my plants grow?
Ah, this will come in handy when the earth becomes inhospitable and we're forced into underground bunkers.
I have one of these for my bathroom I’m thinking of getting another one for my back hallway.
I had a aunt that put one in a dark hallway they work pretty damn well. Also are harder to tear up that regular skylights.
Roses are red Why human fights? This is just nonsense Coz lights are for nights
Are they not missing a trick by not calling them Sunnels?
So this is why girls wear those glass buttplugs.
Sounds fun having to wear sunscreen indoors lmao
We have these where I work. In fact, I'm sitting right under one and I kind of hate its location. I thought it was a light you could turn off until just a few months ago when my supervisor and coworker clued me in. It's cool and all, but not cool when you have a headache or start getting a migraine.
My neighbor had a couple of these in his house in Texas. It completely ruined a great cave like room you could go to escape the endless sunshine. This was a few years ago and he did not have a way to dim it.
I have 2 of these and they are incredible. Highly recommend.
Dad was a roofing contractor. 0/10 recommend punching a shitton of holes in your roof. In fact 0 sky lights, vents, chimnies, stoves is best for energy efficiency and to prevent leaks.
Saw this first time 21y ago.. pretty awesome
Sheetz stores installed these in a few stores then they realized the Led fixtures were cheaper in the long run. And don’t have to worry about leaks and storm damage.
Cool but Led lighting is cheaper.
Cool
My new house from the 1980s has this in the kitchen.
Ugh... I hate holes in roofs. Just a leak waiting to happen.
Stupid question but: Do these reflect there light and the UV as well? Like would someone get a tan under one of these lights?
I wonder if the roof part could be put where lights normally are on the roof, and then LEDs installed inside the rim of the opening on the underside. That way you could get free light during the day inside, and get two lights for the price of one at night.
Where? We call them windows.
I put one in my very first home. Over the kitchen sink (back in 2007...yeah i still own it as a rental.) The think is amazing, there is a street lamp about 2 houses over and the light tunnel captures that light enough to light the whole kitchen so if you want water or a snack at night you don't need to turn on the electric lights. Best $200 I've ever put in a place.
I’m gonna call them sunnels
I was just looking at these yesterday. We are planning to renovate our entire house and I wanted to get more light into the basement. Perfect solution!
Will come in handy when living above ground is no longer an option.
So yall ever heard of a lightbulb? Craziest shit
i heard they used this technique to light up dune sets like the palace rooms in arrakeen
My father in law has these in his house. They’re awesome and give decent light even right up until sunset
More commonly known as a light pipe.
Would this help with solar panels? I imagine it would help absorb more light and keep the panels clean
I feel these will be important in the post apocalyptic wasteland era, when we are all loving and growing food underground
They're quite expensive for what you get. And you get temperature loss too.
Basically blind when cloudy
This would fit better in r/makemesuffer. I spent all my time indoors to avoid the sun, my windows are covered with blackout curtains, and I only go out at night. I certainly don't want the sun piped into my house like this.
Indoor sunburn?
Put a grow light filter on it and voilà indoor plant room...for...whatever.
r/educationalgifs
Man if only these worked in the UK
That's so awesome
Wasn't this in Legend?
My old house in Virginia had these! It seriously helped brighten up a long, creepy hallway.
Aziz! Light!
Oddly dystopian
Question: do these work in providing UV lights for plants?
Tie a photodiode to the end of the optical column and energy harvesting could be enhanced
These could do over 60% of my school
The Egyptians did it first.
These sunlight's can also have leds inside of them to turn on at night.
Would this be difficult to diy if you are not handy at all?
Sunnels
Or….a mirror?
Reviving old tech is great, sadly this don’t work in uk
This is some The Mummy shit
It certainly bring sun light to my dark place 😜
That’s how Tom Cruise defeated the Dark Lord!
These are great… until you want to make the room dark and watch a movie during the day.
(Life Hack) if you own the circle type, a 12” vinyl record will fit in the inside cover so you can block out the light.
I have two in my living room and I don’t even need to turn the lights on during the day. It’s beautiful!
Stupid question - do you need sunscreen in these rooms?
I really like this concept but the cost really turns me off. A basic "tube" with the roof part starts at $200 and costs for parts can easily reach/exceed $500 if you want an integrated light or other options. Then there's whatever the install costs might be on top of what you're paying for the hardware. This cost has not gone down since the last time I looked it up. IDK why there are not cheap knockoffs by now.
A LED light will have to burn for probably longer than I'll live to get to anywhere near that cost. You really have to do this for aesthetic reasons, not to save money.
How strong is the sunlight? Can this be used for indoor growing during the winter in northern latitudes with less heat loss than energy efficient windows?
Unless you live in the UK then they only work once or twice a year
Okay I’m stupid but how does it go around a corner ?
So why are these superior in any way as opposed to solar panels and regular lights? Seems like they take up an unnecessary amount of space and complexity for less practical gain?
Secret tunnel!
Secret tunneeeel!
What happens at night?
"Aziz!! MORE LIGHT!!"
SUNNELS
Id understand if it was for growing things indoors but why not just use a regular light?? Doesnt it go dark after the sun goes down??
Cheaper than only electricity, long term. But idk how you'd put it in a lot of older buildings.
Sun tunnels, or sunnels if you will…
When you do the math, and account for the R-1 (at worst) compromise you make in the integrity of the insulation- it's not worth it. Light with LED, light is cheap, overcoming insulation integrity issues with atmospheric controls is not generally.
I had to get a new roof recently and I had these added to my bathrooms and the corner of my hallway.
During the day, I don’t need to flip a light on. For the first month I kept walking down the hallway thinking “damn that’s bright!”
At night I have little glowing bubbles on my roof. And with colored lights it probably can get festive…?
Soooo it’s a skylight (but upgraded). Interesting that not everyone knows about them already.
Does anyone else remember the infomercials for these
no thank you.
My parents had two of these installed about 20 years ago in a dark hallway and a windowless bathroom. They both have a small light for night-time use and just add so much ambiant light during the day. Never had a problem with leaks.
Light piping
Yep, them Egyptians were pretty smart fuckers to invent this thousands of years ago.
I live in the least sunny city in the US, so I’m not surprised I don’t see these much. Looks like a lot of expense for something that is only going to be effective when the sky isn’t covered in smog and clouds
Does it use Total Internal Reflection? Like a big optical cable? Angles are important people…!
The ancient Egyptians loved this one trick!
Isn't just me or this remembers me of portal 2 light bridges
Always thought it was a bunch of fiber, not a big tube
I remember a while back seeing a crystal that was created to slow light (not really slow, but the light bounces arround inside so many times that there is a delay between light entwring and exiting the crystal). I wonder is there would be some way to combine the two? It would basically be a sunlight battery that would collect the light throughout the day and then shine natural sunlight throughout the night. I'm sure it's currently impractical but it could be a cool future tech.
So could you conceivably get sunburnt from these while chilling in your basement all day? That'd be a bummer.
I think all houses should have a sun tunnel or skylight, especially for rooms without a window.
Wth that is sick
I've got one in my kitchen. It's nice that I no longer have to turn on the light to get a snack at midnight since it works at night when the moon is out.
Useful for the bunker
They did this in the pyramids. Not so new
My buddies parents had these in their kitchen. They’re actually pretty dope.
Angled chunks of glass used to be built into the decks of wooden ships to allow sunlight below decks.
I have one at home. After I extended the house, I lost the window that illuminated the stairs. Now we have a sun tunnel lighting the stairs and I love it. It works great even in the low light of dawn and dusk.
For all who wants it, it doesn’t get that bright. At all. Barely any lumen on overcast days.
I used to work in a place with these. It was actually kind of annoying sometimes because you can't shut them off.
Rgre
Perhaps a dumb question, but wouldn't this also heat up your room a lot more than a regular LED light, especially in countries with a strong sun?
Huh. Any ideas on how I can use this concept to bring sunlight to my windowless bedroom from an immediately adjacent room?
How often do you have to replace the bulbs?
If you’re interested in this, check how optic fibre works. It’s plain Newtonian optics, but cool AF.
These things were used in ancient egypt in pyramids, btw
Makes sense cause no matter what light you invent it ain’t gonna be as powerful and free as Sunlight
In the 90’s there was a brand called “Sola Tube”
I have one in my dining room. Works pretty good. Never seen one before i purchased my house
Super awesome, but everytime it rains in Missouri, it leaves a thick layer of dirt on everything. I imagine these would be a nightmare to keep at 100% functionality
Aziz LIGHT!
I have a mirror I got for free in my garden which shines sunlight into a north facing window
So it’s like a skylight and a periscope had a baby?
It’s called a solar tube
Oh shit they made them into a real thing
In Mexico we have something called tragaluz, and it's basically this except it's a glass cube
WHY ARENT WE FUNDING THIS??!
They're literally called skylights, most older homes have them because they're easy to maintain and easy to build.
I've had two of these fitted to my house. They work brilliantly and have really improved the rooms they were put into.
I have 2, they are fantastic
What if there are clouds
There is a city i think in austria or germany i read about that uses a mirror to get sunlight into dark city streets
And if it’s cloudy……?
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We need there’s everywhere
Sun tunnel on the Death Star = not a good idea
My brother-in-law has a business in Arkansas installing those. They’re amazing!!
Screams in New England Daylight Savings
I've actually seen a better solution than this, it looks just like a skylight, it acts just like a skylight (gets darker when Sun is covered, off at night etc.) But it's actually a square solar powered defused light. It also comes with a remote to turn it on and off (and I'm assuming you can attach a battery to have it work at night)
Reminds me of the way they lit the below deck areas of ships during the times of the Franklin Expedition
Ours are direct, not jointed, but we love them. Bathroom and kitchen spaces are much improved.
People really didn’t knew this?
God I hate installing these….
I thought of this 4 years ago when I was 12. Darn u ppl
Finally the fritzls can have sunlight!!
Would I need to wear sunscreen inside though? My pasty arse gets burnt on overcast days, I can't be getting burnt even when I'm hiding from the sun!
I have a couple in my place that I had installed when I moved in - no leaks and I love them. One is in the hallway and the other is over one side of my kitchen counter - I decided against the ones with lights inside as the wiring mess was just too much fuss. Those ones have light sensors and turn up the electric lighting as the natural light goes.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, i was working on a roof today and wondered what that was
Super neat.
Can I grow weed with this ?
Its all good till night pulls up
Got one In my bathroom and kitchen pretty awesome
You've never seen the movie Legend (1985)...Spoiler Alert!
Looks expensive
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Slightly different - more like a bent kaleidoscope so light can bounce in at any angle. You will not be able to see an image of much through one of these. A periscope has to be flat mirrors and the inlet/outlet are very directional. Won’t work if you’re not pointed directly at it
We have these at my school and they’re near but it’s really not all that different than a normal light.
So incredibly pointless for winter times lol
Ya but what about at night? You still need lights lol
So cool.
They were selling these at least 25 - 30 years ago. They’re neat. They even have a feature where you can add lightbulb for after sundown.
Macgyver calls it an "optical pump"
We had one installed and the installer had to wear protective clothing on his face and arms to stop him getting sunburnt as it was so powerful
We have one, but the idiot that was the previous owner placed the dome in a place the light can’t reach!
My old bosses parents house had these since it was built in the 70s. Had long mirror pipes run from the roof through the attic and into whichever room they needes.
I used to have one it was cool but got dead bugs in it
Solatube. You’re welcome.
My sister has one in the bathroom I was forever trying to turn the light off!
Keep trying. I bet if you keep trying it would slowly turn off.
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Can you turn them off at daytime?
Hell, yeah! They have a photo sensor built in, so when the sun is shining they turn off and the batteries charge from the sunlight coming through the sun tunnel!
They also have daylight controllers, kind of like an electric-powered lid, that can cap off the daylight if necessary.
Is it just the bottom peice? I have one already installed
Its actually just a little lamp that gets installed inside the tunnel itself. I believe if you remove the interior glass you should be able to install this after-the-fact.
Check out this link https://www.veluxusa.com/products/accessories/sun-tunnel-accessories
Is there a cut sheet? There's like 3 sentences of info on the led there
My parents had some installed in their house but it was 20+ years ago. They didn't have built-in lights, but they had a cover you could put over the inside dome to darken it. It wasn't convenient, though.
If they all have built-in Emperor's New Suspenders.
They’re open to the sun so prob not. But it’s joy always sunny.
You want to turn off the sun?
Are there models that can also connect to the power grid, so when there’s not enough sun, the same sun tunnels could also act as regular lights when necessary but prioritise free sunlight whenever possible?
Totally, Its an accessory kit called a Universal Electric Light Kit and it would work with any model of the sun tunnel. Hooks up to your wired electric and can be hooked to a light switch.
Yes. I saw one that had a light fixture in the tube that can be turned on and off with a wall switch. The fixture blocks some of the sunlight but not much.
Why would the tunnel connect to the grid?
Install sunlights in rooms alongside electric lights, and use photoswitches for the electrics. They only turn on when the room is dark.
Yeah but theb my ceiling wouldn’t need to be entirely covered in sunlights and regular lights. Just cleaner if a 2in1 option exists.
Can you give me a deal
free
Hell yeah, Brother!
Where were you when I had to order 4 skylights from Velux last month?
He was on reddit of course. This one's on you for being out there in the real world. Yuck. 🙃
So this is an ad now
Didn’t realize why the comment was removed until now. Must have been a link
How much does it cost to get one installed?
You'd have to talk to a handyman or contractor. It's not the easiest thing in the world on an already finished home.
I was semi interested until I saw you haven't bothered to make the app available for anything but Apple.
I didn't make the App, I don't work for Velux. But I didn't realize it was only developed for IOS. I'll make sure to warn my customers! That stinks!
Do not but these product!!!! ^ sorry brother but you sell your product in Home Depot and Lowes for a reason they’re low end and pointless you’ll need 5 of them to light up an office. I use to take 10 of these out a week and replace them.
Do they only work for houses? Can it be installed in a Condo? One of the rooms have no window and I'm trying to look for an alternative.
That really depends on the construction of your condo. If you're in an apartment style flat with another unit above you, this wouldn't really be possible since you don't have a direct line to your roof.
Would it work in a cloudy country?
Should work decent enough as long as when there is cloud cover you're still getting a decent amount of light.
Did you develop them? I've been thinking about a solar-powered art piece and I'd love to pick your brain.
Oh gosh, no. I work in sales for a building supply company. However, I'd love to talk about your ideas! I've supplied material for a handful of local artists.
Does country/ location matter for this discount you offered the other guy? I haven't seen you mention it, so I wanted to ask.
Unless you live in the midwest US, I doubt you'll be buying a skylight from my small company lol
How much heat is transferred into an area?
Very little, if at all.
About how much do they cost?
There's tons of options but generally would be between the $200 to $500 range depending. You'd have to talk to your contractor about installation costs.
Your comment just makes me think this post is an advertisement :(
Def not an advertisement, I don't work for Velux, I just thought it would be fun to share some of my own knowledge since I work in the building industry!
Is anyone using these for growing plants? Seems like the most obvious use case beyond aesthetics.
Not that I've ever heard of. I'm a pretty big house plant guy myself and I don't think these would really transfer enough light to benefit any plants.
I hear it takes a few hours sometimes.
Took me all goddamn day.
Yeah man but once it's off, it's off for a while man
Should only take you half goddamn day
Goddamn days use different measurements.
And they hide the switches in the weirdest of places.
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You fool! That'll just make it brighter!
I’m going to figure out how to turn this light off even if it takes me all night!
twist: sister lives in Alaska
Good news and bad news.
GOOD: It will still eventually work.
BAD: It might take A LOT longer.
Just give it 12 hours or so and it’ll change state
Nope, it would still be in Alaska.
But it took all day!!
Hahaha I don’t know about that, it was pretty dang persistent to shine on like a crazy diamond!
Do they have like a mechanical shade to cover the hole? Because if not, I'd be pissed.
I’ve been wanting to do this for my windowless bathrooms. So happy to learn it’s a thing with a name I can google. I was about to crawl into the attic with a bunch of mirrors
Exact same here, I laugh every time I do it
stayed at an airbnb that had this in the bathroom. Took me a day to figure it out since it looks like a light fixture
My parents’ old house had one too! I liked it.
Same here. Not ideal when you’re hungover
When you finally succeed and destroy all life on earth
Just turn off the sun
Here comes the sun dodododo
Hmm why would you want a dark bathroom tho? 🤔
Where she lives stays bright till late, the hallway is darker so my natural instinct was to turn the light off when I left the room. It genuinely looks like a larger sized downlight with a super bright globe.
I always wondered why we didn’t have these everywhere. I guess not being able to turn off the sun is the reason.