Solatube International Inc. Introduces Zero-To-10-Volt Daylight Dimmer™
December 4, 2007
Daylighting Taken to New Level with Complete Lighting Control Integration
Solatube International Inc., the worldwide leading manufacturer and marketer of Tubular Daylighting Devices (TDDs), has announced the introduction of its new Zero-to-10-volt Daylight Dimmer, representing a more sophisticated level of daylighting control. Read more
Solatube International Inc. Introduces Solatube Designer Touches
November 1, 2007
Tubular Daylighting Device Now Available with Premium Design Options
Solatube International Inc., the worldwide leading manufacturer and marketer of Tubular Daylighting Devices (TDDs), has introduced the first-ever line of designer daylighting options, Solatube Designer Touches. The premium accessory line for the Solatube Daylighting System provides new options for homeowners looking for stylish lighting options for their homes and for designers integrating daylighting into their projects. Read more
What exactly is a Solatube?
November 19, 2006
David Berlin
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
The Solatube is kind of a new product. It was invented in the mid-80s for the residential market. It was originally termed a tubular skylight.
Now we are being termed a tubular day-lighting device. The reason for that is that we are not a skylight. We’re very different from a skylight, both how we operate thermally and how we operate optically, how we collect light and bring daylight into spaces.
When we talk about Solatube what we’re really talking about is an optical daylight system where we’re using optics to really carefully engineer how we collect daylight. How we redirect and transport daylight. And ultimately how we use daylight into the occupied spaces. So what we’ve done is created a product that integrates into the ceiling like a light fixture, but we’re providing daylight to fully illuminate the space without the need for electric lights for the vast majority of daylight hours.
In layman’s terms, the skylight is just a piece of glass in the ceiling?
Exactly, it’s a hole in the roof that allows the light in, where as the Solatube is different because we’re really shaping or we’re collecting light.
How much money do you save on your electric bill using Solatube?
Well, when we talk about a commercial building it can be huge. We cut our utilities by about 23 percent and we are actually daylit for about 97 percent of the year, so our electric lights are only on about 3 percent of the year in this building.
So we can be talking easily tens of thousands or in large facilities it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars annually that a company is saving.
What are the negative connotations with day lighting?
That it’s highly variable. You think of daylight and a lot of people think of heat. And that’s not always a good thing for a lot of buildings these days. You think of shifting patterns of light and high contrast that can cause glare and those are just signs of systems that were not properly designed. But the nice thing is that with the Solatube, now applying day lighting is as easy as applying electric lighting to a space. And it’s a higher quality of daylight illumination than most architects would ever have thought possible.
How much do Solatubes cost?
It really is dependent on the application type and what product size the homeowner wants. In a specific application, depending on where in the country, prices could range from $300 on up.
How did you originally get into the day-lighting industry?
Well my degrees are in engineering, and they encompass architecture, mathematics behind light and integration or the affects of light on architectural services, and the physics behind the actual generation of light, as well as the psychology of perception. So I am an illumination engineer. Illumination is the art and science of lighting. Basically that’s a highly specialized type of engineer.
So that’s what I do. It was one of those things where I had gone to school to actually become a structural engineer and had to take a class in lighting in college and just fell in love with the topic. I became very excited about the opportunities to grow kind of a fledgling industry and I’ve never looked back.
Neall Digert is vice president of commercial market development for Vista-based Solatube International Inc., a provider of natural-lighting units for residential and commercial buildings worldwide. Digert joined Solatube in 2000 and has a background in illumination engineering. He estimates that each year his company sells about 150,000 day-lighting units, which focus and redirect sunlight from outside through a highly reflective shaft and diffuse the light indoors.
