I saw these at a local hardware store…they consist of a domed skylight, with an aluminum flexible tube (about 14" in diameter. The idea is that the skylight catches light, which is reflected through the tube, down into your room. Great idea…but are they difficult to install? How about roof leaks?
I’d like to install a few in the kitchen…but I’m wondering of they are hard to put in.
I have looked at these a couple of times.
At least in the stores where I have seen them, it would be much cheaper to install a couple of good lights, and run them all the time, and no worries about leaks.
My only experience has been seeing them put in on TV. They look fairly simple, as long as you’d be comfortable installling a “standard” one, the concepts are the same, but in a smaller scale.
I’ve never used one. When the idea was first floated, it was touted as a way of getting solar light to interior windowless offices in a big building. The tube need not be in a straight line. The optic “intake” can be on a south wall, and the fiber optic/reflective tube brings sunlight to, say, your bathroom. Thus, you don’t have the leak worries you get in a standard skylight.
My father-in-law has one installed in his home. He snakes the light in through the roof, through the attic, right into the upstairs. It works very well, lighting up the center of the room.