Afternoon all,

Our upstairs hallway/landing is quite dark when all the bedroom doors are shut (which they tend to be, to keep the cat and her fur off the beds).

The bathroom door has obscured glazing in it, but it’s not quite enough to beat the gloom.

Has anyone got a sunpipe? Care to share any experiences?

http://www.monodraught.com/residential/natural-daylight/2/sunpipe-230/

Dave

We had one, and have fitted a couple on houses. It worked well on our house, but it was south west facing – I doubt it would be any way as good if north facing. We could also reach it to clean (it was to a cellar) and that used to make a good difference.
About the same as a 40-60w light on all the time in sunlight.

My folks just removed two as they were badly fitted, contributed little and collected insects. PITA I think they called them.

Obscure/frosted panel above the door is the old fashioned solution to share the window light from the bedrooms.

The roof I’d put it on is south facing, so no worries about how much light will hit the collector.

40-60w would be plenty, since a 60w lightbulb lights it perfectly well at night, and it gets some light during the day through the bathroom.

My folks just removed two as they were badly fitted, contributed little and collected insects. PITA I think they called them.

Can all of those problems be put down to the fact they were badly fitted, or is there something fundamentally wrong with them?

Dave

Obscure/frosted panel above the door is the old fashioned solution

but given the replastering and painting involved in doing that, wouldn’t it be cheaper to do the sunpipe?

Dave

Maybe, but no matter how badly wrong it goes, it won’t leave a leaky hole in the roof.

fair point 🙂

Work well in the right circumstances but can be a right pain for collecting insects, condensation & do need accessibility for cleaning – eco wise might we worth factoring in how much heat they loose in winter? All in all glazing above door frames probably a better bet in circumstances you describe, especially if only plasterboard walls.

Ghetto? http://dornob.com/solar-bottle-lamps-water-bleach-10000-liters-of-light/#axzz2YNhRDuPA

All in all glazing above door frames probably a better bet in circumstances you describe, especially if only plasterboard walls.

Except if you’re in bed, you then get disturbed when anyone puts on the upstairs light…, we have these throughout – and if I CBA’d with the effort, I’d take them out.

and if I CBA’d with the effort, I’d take them out.

Only need some paper & sticky tape or fit a curtain if the over door lights are a problem. Quite a bit of experience with sunpipes 15 or so years ago & wouldn’t recommend them myself.

How exactly do insects get inside?

Surely it would be sealed, and therefore insects getting in implies a breach somewhere?

Insulation wise, if it is sealed, then it would be a big trapped tube of air, which would insulate very well.

Am I missing something… are they not sealed?

Dave

big bubble of air = internal air currents, warm air rises to top cools down & drops to bottom = ideal way to circulate heat to out doors.

they may have improved them over the years, but certainly 15yrs ago they were a very cheap & nasty bit of kit for the money being asked for them. Used to be sealed with a loop of sticky back foam for example

Those ghetto lights are great 🙂