Solar Tube Sky Light
The project is to install a Solar Tube sky light in a bathroom. Here is a before shot with no lights on in the bathroom.
Heading up to the roof...
First we had to cut a whole through the shingles or preferably before the shingles were installed on a new construction home. We used a saws-all to cut the whole and installed the flashing and housing under the shingles (along with the included sealant) so any moisture will roll off.
Here is a view of the Solar Tube with the top piece off. You can see a blue film over the inner portion of the down tube. If that had been removed it would have blinded the camera. Remove this before placing the gasket and top dome on the down tube. Before we get too far ahead we have to cut a corresponding hole for the fitting in the interior of the home.
We cut this hole directly below the hole on the roof for simplicity, but if trusses, wiring, HVAC don’t all for that the down tubes will rotate for some variation in location.
Here is a view from the attic into the interior of the home. Looks pretty dark down there, huh?
The dome has a reflector that we aimed toward magnetic south because the sun spends most of its time closer to the southern sky. This will reflect the sunlight down into the tube. The angle of the solar dome will vary with the pitch of your roof, but this shouldn’t affect the light quality inside your home.
Here is a view from the attic space of the Solar Tube with the dome on and the blue film removed. There wasn’t any light in the attic space other than this. Next we will connect the remaining down tubes.
This case was a straight shot from the roof to the interior. We attached the down tubes with metal screws and taped all of the seams with HVAC tape.
Shot from inside with the solar diffuser installed.
Here is the finished installation with the “light diffuser” installed. There are no other lights on in the bathroom. This is free all natural light at around 4pm.
