Sun Lightning

Is there someone on the second floor that you don't like?

I assume you mean lighting, not lightning.

This can be done. There is a company called solatube that does this more or less. You might try looking at their website.

I have a couple of SolaTubes, and they work well, but they do not concentrated the light, and they do not use flexible light guides. They simply reflect incoming sunlight through polished aluminum tubes to the destination area. A diffuser spreads the light out somewhat, but it is hardly large area lighting.

My parents have one of the larger Solatube (about 12inches across) and it lights up their whole living room.

I do have the smaller 10" ones. the one in my entry lights up the whole (≈4'x8') entry and allows my wife to grow plants there. The other is to light up a dark corner of the living room, again for the benefit of plants.

Wasn't there a village in Switzerland that tried using mirrors to bounce in sunlight from behind a mountain?

yes, there was a village....

No, a FLAT mirror, not the focusin...ssss

http://www.loftshop.co.uk/products.asp?catID=2

Yep. Done it on a recent home extension project. It works a treat.

Is that just a skylight or does it have the mirrored conduit that carries the light down to the room?

Thanks for the Solatube site reference. Interesting concept, the OptiView light diffuser.

To conceptualise:

Question 2: Could a high transparency sheet of glass (for example – 1000 mm x 1000 x 5) be pumped with light from an optical (glass) fibre cable (50m long – for example)?

It is supposed the sheet of glass to act as light diffuser. One side mirrored / coated with high reflection material, to reflect light in only one direction (ceiling / wall lighting).

Question3: What about the contact between the fibre cable and the light diffuser (sheet of glass)? Technical feasible?

I think it's feasible. 50 feet should not be a issue for the right fiber optic cable. I would suggest many fibers, rather than just one big one, connected all along one edge of your glass. The connection would require something to match the index of refraction between the fiber and the glass. Plexiglass or some other plastic might be a better match than pure glass. I don't know about the availability of fiber optic cables for this application, since they are typically made to carry light at frequencies outside the visible spectrum, but I'd guess they are out there, since you can buy fiber optic lamps and probes.

Getting light into the cable would be another issue, since the sun is always moving.

It seems complicated.

How about just collecting the sunlight in photovoltaic cells, and recreating it with LEDs? I doubt anyone could tell the difference.

About "the sun is always moving" see please, HELIOTS® and DoubleSun®

sun multiplicator we doubled the sun at youtube. Ok for the photovoltaic cells approach.

Could it be done, for just the sunlight?

The inside surface of the conduit is highly-reflective thin metal (not sure which one) sheet, and cylindrical. It ducts natural light from above a sloping roof surface into a bathroom that would otherwise have none, the room not having any outside walls into which a window might otherwise be inserted. The bottom of the duct has a clear polycarbonate diffuser, which has a pattern similar to that found on some commercial fluorescent light fittings though it is circular and domed slightly, that is attached to the underside of the bathroom ceiling and spreads the light out in a large diffuse cone into the room below.

(From an entirely-satisfied Customer.)

You made my day. Thanks very much for this INFO.

It's amazing how things happen.

A far incredible idea was exposed and already

somebody succeeded to have a product on the market.

Long life to creativity and mankind.

We will survive the "global warming treat".

PARANS - the name to remember!!

http://parans.production.llr.se/

Thanks to the flexibility and high light transmission of the fiber optical cables, the Parans System can transport the sunlight to most locations in a building without occupying valuable space.

Sun lightning? Solar activity? Hmmm...

But assuming you mean lighting, There is an interesting debate going on for years among the world leading archaeologists as to how did the pyramids artists/builders painted their wall paintings on the internal walls in TOTAL darkness? you say light torches, Well, there are NO carbon deposits on the walls or ceiling, something that would have definitely been left by by a burning torch. The general agreement is that they had some very sophisticated way of delivering sunlight sometimes further than 2500' (800m) by means of mirrors, optical tubes or? Remember, there are no evidences of any kind of the existence of glass mirrors at the time!

You see apms55, nothing new...

Wangito

Maybe they painted their painting on the internal walls before the roof was built.

d'oh!

Hi apms55.

I contacted once sunlight-direct to ask for a quote. It was around $20,000 for a whole system, including installation.

Another smaller system is Himawary (sun-flower in Japanese):

http://www.himawari-net.co.jp/e_page-index01.html

The problem is they never answered my emails. Their price is around $10,000.

Both have all necessary components: solar tracker, solar collector, optical fiber and light fixtures. There are two main differences in their technology:

a) sunlight-direct use plastic while himawary use silica optical fibers

b) the IR and UV are filtered at sunlight-direct while himawary exploits spacial focusing for not puting them into the main optical bundle.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Michael

Hi Michael

It was of great help. Including my "hidden agenda" was also disclosed: BIO GROWTH LIGHTING.

Allow me to repeat my comment about the same idea being "discovered" and developed (almost) simultaneously in at least 3 (so far) different places.

Long life to creativity and mankind. We will survive the "global warming threat".

Summing up we have:

http://www.himawari-net.co.jp/e_page-index01.html.

Any more contributions?

Best regards

apms55

Hello apms55,

We will survive the "global warming threat".

What threat? Warming? How so?

If we are to believe the data showing a thinning of the ozone layer which blocks damaging radiation from space entering the lower altitudes and also from the earths surface out into space. But also recognize that frequent nuclear explosions have sent particulates high into the atmosphere blocking radiation inhibiting global warming; as I'm writing I'm losing context of you're statement.

Yeper ya lost me there dude er? yep...