Solar Lighting

We are so confident that no other tubular daylight system will give you more light - all day long, all year long - than a Solatube daylight system, we offer a money-back guarantee. 

How does a Solatube work?

Solatube captures daylight from your rooftop, directs it down a highly reflective tube, then delivers it into the room below - simple but brilliant! There are no running costs and the system is maintenance free. Below is a summary of the product features that make Solatube the most efficient tubular daylight system ... ever.

In the CAPTURE zone

1-Patented Raybender® 3000 Dome
Solatube doesn't just wait for light to fall on the roof dome and into the tube aperture ... our high tech dome uses a patented Fresnel lens system to actively harvest additional daylight that would otherwise have passed straight through the dome and out the other side, and redirects it down into the tube at the steepest possible angle to minimize bounces (see how fewer bounces mean less light loss in our comparison chart below).
2-Patented LightTracker™ reflector
This unique reflector, 99.7% reflective, is fixed into the dome and greatly increases the surface area available to catch yet more light and redirect it down into the tube.

In the TRANSFER zone

3-Spectralight® Infinity reflective tubing
Spectralight® Infinity is 99.7% reflective. It is the most reflective material used in tubular daylight systems and is used exclusively by Solatube. You may have seen it demonstrated on the BBC's Tomorrow's World programme. Our comparison chart below shows how tube material with a reflective value lower than 99.7% will have a significant impact on the amount of light delivered.

In the DELIVERY zone

4-Vusion® or OptiView® diffuser
A ceiling diffuser is necessary to distribute the daylight evenly throughout the room below. Solatube diffusers are sleek and contemporary, and fit neatly to the ceiling with no visible fasteners. They are double-glazed to prevent heat gain/loss and block UV transmission - no faded furnishings!

Proven benefits

• Reduced energy costs – eliminates the need to
use artificial lighting during the day
• Increased worker productivity
• Reduced staff absenteeism
• Improved student performance
• Increased property values
• Improved retail sales
• Truest and most vivid colour rendition
• Helps to meet Government targets for reducing
carbon footprint
• Minimized solar gain in summer or heat loss in
winter
• No maintenance required
• More secure than traditional skylights
• Easily installed into existing buildings or new
build
• Unrivalled quality and performance from the
world’s leading manufacturer

With 99.7% reflectivity, Solatube® Daylighting Systems deliver unrivalled performance and value, guaranteeing more light transfer than any other system.

How much light will Solatube provide?

The table below shows lumen levels that you can expect to receive with UK weather conditions, but to give an exact figure for light output would be misleading because a Solatube - indeed any tubular daylight system - works in a similar manner to a window - the brighter the day outside, the more light you receive inside.

SOLATUBE MODEL	TUBE DIAMETER	LIGHT COVERAGE	*MAXIMUM LUMEN OUTPUT	POTENTIAL TUBE LENGTH
Solatube 160DS	250mm	up to 13sqm (150sqft)	4100	6 metres
Solatube 290DS	350mm	up to 22 sqm (250sqft)	8200	9 metres

The daylight systems that will give more light, therefore, are those that take greatest advantage of the available light levels at all times of the day and year - and this is where Solatube is light years ahead and why we can offer a Highest Performance Guarantee.

Solatube's patented Raybender® 3000 dome and LightTracker™ reflector together can more than double the amount of daylight that enters the tube aperture over a system without these features. This is particularly important when the sun is low in the sky - in the early morning, late evening, or during winter months.

Our 99.7% reflective Spectralight® Infinity tubing then ensures that as much daylight as possible continues down the tube. Every time light bounces off a surface a certain amount of light is inevitably absorbed by that surface - how much is absorbed depends on the reflective properties of the surface. The comparison table below shows how Solatube's 99.7% reflective Spectralight® Infinity tubing plays a critical role in achieving its unrivalled performance.

Tube reflectivity comparison chart
	% of light remaining after bounces
Tube reflectivity value	0 bounces	5 bounces	10 bounces	15 bounces	20 bounces
99.7% Spectralight® Infinity	100%	98.51%	97.04%	95.59%	94.17%
98.0%	100%	90.39%	81.71%	73.86%	66.76%
96.0%	100%	81.54%	66.48%	54.21%	44.20%
95.0%	100%	77.38%	59.87%	46.3%	35.85%

You can see that even small differences in reflective value will make a significant difference to the amount of light that is finally delivered. For example, the difference between 99.7% and 98% doesn't sound that great, but when you check the percentage of light remaining after just 20 bounces, you can see that Spectralight® Infinity delivers almost 30% more light than a 98% reflective material.

Flexible duct daylight systems
The data in the chart above shows reflectivity values of rigid tube systems. We have not included flexible tube data in the chart because flexible tube by its very nature is not a reliable means of transferring light. Light entering a flexible tube will not necessarily continue to bounce on a downward path, but will scatter randomly in all directions (including upwards) as it bounces off the concertinaed surface of the tube. Some flexible tube system manufacturers claim a reflectivity value of 90% (rather optimistic in our view), but either way such systems are extremely inefficient. A recent study by the BRE (Building Research Establishment) showed that Solatube could produce more than 10 times the amount of light than a comparably sized flexible duct system.

 

Please contact us if you would like further details