Design: Out of the Shadows
July 16, 2008
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Is your house full of dark spaces and dreary corners? Don’t despair – there are plenty of ways to brighten things up. Kate Watson-Smyth asks the experts to shed some light.
So it’s sun-drenched July again – only it isn’t. There’s nothing like a dull summer’s day to make you feel that your house is dark and dingy, nothing to make you more resentful than having to keep the lights on all day as if it were November.
But help is at hand. There are clever ways to lighten those dark spaces and dreary corners that can channel the outside light in. Here are some of the options available to bring the summer into your home even when it doesn’t appear to be outside.
TUBULAR SKYLIGHTS
Better known as solar tubes or sun pipes, this technology has been around since it was invented in Australia 20 years ago, but is only just beginning to be considered in this country. A small dome is inserted into the roof and circular mirrored tube feeds down from it into the room that needs lighting. The dome catches the sun from every angle and bounces it down the tube into the dark space, while the end of the tube is covered with a diffuser to spread the light out below. It’s a reasonably expensive installation, but once you have it, the light is, of course, free, and it’s that most precious of commodities: daylight. Chris Taffs, of Solalighting.co.uk, says: “There are cheaper systems about, but the beauty of ours is that the roof dome is angled to catch the sun from any angle, even when the sun is low in winter. Some of them only work when the sun is shining directly down the tube.”
He talks a lot of physics and light refraction, but the basic rules to consider are that if you buy a tube with 96 per cent light refraction, you will lose 5 per cent of that light every time it has to bounce down the tube. That is on average 20 times, which means that by the time the light hits the hallway, you are down to 44.2 per cent light increase. Taffs’s systems are 99.7 per cent, which means only minimal loss of light.
In general, the tube should go from the roof straight down the wall to the area that needs to be lit. Some houseowners have built wardrobes or low coffee tables to hide a tube that couldn’t be set into a wall. Sometimes the tube can be ducted through at an angle, although that depends on how much it needs to bend as to whether it will still work. If you can stick the dome on a flat roof and pass it straight into the room below, needing about 16in of tube, it will cost around £250. For two lengths, including installation, the price rises to about £600.
GLASS
As more and more of us extend our houses at the back, we are not only creating darker spaces in the middle of the house, but we’re becoming more adventurous in our use of glass. But while glass walls and doors may be the norm now, one couple, Tim and Zoe Bawtree, went further with their partly underground house, built in Cheltenham and featured on Grand Designs. In order to get the size of house they required, they had to go underground. They used reinforced glass to create ceilings that can also be walked on, in order to maximise the light into the basement area. The underground space also has a south-facing wall of folding glass panels and light wells.
Tim Bawtree says: “We are selling the house because we have caught the building bug and we want to build another house that is bigger. It will still be partially underground and next time we will use even more glass. We spent about £30,000 on glass – about 10 per cent of the overall budget – and we will do the same again on the next project. “It was money well spent and means that although we live in the basement, it’s not dark at all. The rule is probably that if you can’t stand somewhere naked in your house and feel private, then you have too much glass, but other than that, use as much as you can.” He says that next time they will consider using glass that turns opaque: this is LCD glass that appears milky until an electric current is passed through it, making it go clear. It costs around £2,000 per square metre, which means you don’t need to use blinds or curtains, which inevitably block out some of the precious light.
SKYLIGHTS
Perfect for a Victorian house where there are probably a number of different roof levels – these houses are often extended to add bathrooms, build over the side return and so on. Velux recommends a ratio of 15 per cent glazing to floor space to create the best effect. The most obvious place is in a loft conversion but consider putting one at the top of the house in the landing roof, which will flood light down through to the dark areas below. A standard Velux window starts at £152.75, including VAT.
MIRRORS
Another obvious solution but one that people don’t often use to proper effect. Mirrors will bounce light around a room. Placed behind a lamp, they will double the amount of light it gives off; behind a plant, they will increase the sense of greenness and space, and above a fireplace, reflecting a picture from the wall opposite makes the room feel bigger. Don’t use a whole sheet of single mirror, which can make it feel like a bathroom. If you live in a period property, create the same effect by using old mirrors in different frames and sizes, making a feature of lighting a wall. If the room has a small window, hang a mirror on the wall opposite that is the same size as the window or bigger, doubling the amount of light the room receives.
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