Lighting strategies
user-1044545
| Posted in Green Building Techniques on
i could not find this on any other forum and hopefully my post is relevant
Is there a way to get natural sunlight into a dark room? I have a 1st floor living room in an attached house (attached from both sides) and this room runs north south and has some windows on the south-facing side. Could I use some technique to light up the whole room using these windows? I see a technique listed here but it needs direct access to the roof
http://www.yougen.co.uk/blog-entry/1760/How+to+bring+sunlight+into+a+dark+room/
Thanks
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Replies
Sam,
If you want natural light in the center of your house, you're going to need a skylight -- either a conventional skylight or one of the newer tubular skylights -- and that means, of course, you need access to the roof.
Here are two articles on tubular skylights:
Tubular Skylights Introduce Daylight to Dark Homes
Tubular Skylights: Gimmick or Good Idea?
Instead of running the tubes from the roof, can I instead point it somehow on the south-side facing windows?
Sam,
Q. "Instead of running the tubes from the roof, can I instead point it somehow on the south-side facing windows?"
A. No. That wouldn't really work, and such an installation would be contrary to the manufacturer's installation instructions. Of course, if you have $10,000 (plus a little more for installation costs), you could install a fiber-optic lighting system: Fiber Optics for Daylighting.
I would suggest working with watcha got. What is outside that south facing glass? What color are your walls? Ceiling? Floor?
I have wood ceilings and it is amazing how much dimmer it is than a house with white ceilings.