One of the best things we've done to make our home more comfortable is to add some Velux Sun Tunnels in our powder room and one of the bathrooms. With our home being on a wooded lot, sunlight is at a premium, especially during winter. Much of our indoor space is so dark it's like a cave. And I'm too cheap to be turning on lights during the day if I can avoid it.
So, soon after moving, I realized we had to get more light into the place, particularly the rooms that have no windows. I got some home remodeling books from the library to get ideas on how to bring more light into rooms. We heard about solar tubes, round skylights that don't leak as easily as the big window-type skylights do.
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The kids' bathroom is a much cheerier place
thanks to natural light (and a fun paint color on the walls) |
We looked at Solatube first. It was about $500 to have one installed. (I don't remember what the price was for just the product.) I didn't think that was too bad and they qualified for that federal energy tax credit program, but my husband wanted to consider all the options. We had heard solar tubes aren't too hard to install so when we saw some Velux Sun Tunnels on sale at Menard's, we bought four. Including some additional optional extensions, we only paid a couple hundred each (sorry, I can't remember the exact figure.)
The first one was the hardest to install, mostly because we were so nervous about cutting into the roof. Seriously, I felt like we were committing a mortal sin! (Thou shalt not breach thy roofing!) We didn't know what to expect and wanted to make sure to do it when there was no chance of rain for several days. (Just in case something went wrong.)
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View without a diffuser
(notice the year's worth of bugs) |
Once we got the guts up to do it, it took my husband three hours or so for the first one. The others took about 1 1/2-2 hrs. I was really pleased with the results. In the powder room we put in the provided diffuser and the light is very soft and even. In the kid's bathroom, the kids didn't want the diffuser so when the sun is very bright, the light streaks across the walls. They were thrilled with the nifty ever-changing patterns and thought it was cool you could see the sky. I personally don't recommend it though, because you can also see any bugs that have fallen into the tube. Ugh!
The light from our Sun Tunnels may not always be bright enough to perform detailed grooming tasks (like applying eye liner), but even on the darkest winter day the light is still bright enough that you can use the room without having to turn on the light. It's really cut down on our electrical use in those rooms.
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This is the light from our Sun Tunnel
in our powder room on a gray rainy
day in March |
The solar tubes have transformed the rooms where they are installed and I'd have to say that it was one of our smartest remodeling decisions. (The only solar tube that didn't make us happy was the one we put in a bedroom. We hadn't considered that people like it dark in their bedrooms when they are trying to sleep. Oops!)
Anyhow, we have a few more spots where we could use some daylight. I'd like to put some more in. I've heard Solatube offers big ones with even more light-gathering capacity. I do not know if Velux does.
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Before we installed a solar tube
we could not use the room without turning on the light. |
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| Even with the door open, the powder room was dark and gloomy |
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