We put a Solatube in the renovation of our 1916 Bungalow to light up a large side entry that had no windows. It's been in for 10 years with no problems at all. It's amazing the amount of light it brings in. I looked online, and did not see the one we have, I'm sure they are new and even better now. It's quiet large, I'm guessing the inside lens is probably 2' wide. We even put one outside in the deep overhang on a side entry that was so dark. We are going to put one in the mud room area of our new house, too.

Blue light? Not really understanding that questions. The interior lens is a textured glass (plastic?), with a white rim.

Natural sunlight appears cold or "blue" compared to the normal interior lighting in a house.

I prefer the SunTunnel from Velux but it depends on how complex the installation is.

How much room it will light depends on the orientation of the roof and what other sources of light are in the room. It is always a supplementary daytime light source.

Thank you both for responding.

The Solatube has a lens that warms the light--I guess it's tinted to avoid the "blue effect."

Macv, can you tell me why you prefer the Velux?

We have a Sun Tunnel from Velux and we are really happy with it. We have it in the mudroom which is the entry from the garage to the home. We seldom need to turn on the can lights in that room, even on over ast days or during dusk/dawn.

I have spec'd and used Solatube in several projects now. One I did an assisted living facility where I ran them down the corridors 8' oc, with the 18" model. it has a round lense that dropped nicely into the ceiling grid. They work fantastic, the owner loves them. They do not even have to turn on the lights in the halls during the day at all. (the lights have occ. sensors, but we also added daylight harvesting controls to them bc of the ST).
Solatube offers several different tube finishes and sizes. the type of finish will affect how much light and how far it travels, as well as the overall color tone.
Their roof mounted lense also catches and reflects more light then other brands. The ones we used are bright, white natural light, no blue tone at all. I highly recommend them. I am putting some in my house, thats for sure.

I have the Velux 14" in my master closet. The orientation on the roof is South. I do have that blue cast that you talking about. I also have one in a hallway & in my laundry/craft room. I like the ones in the last two rooms and the light does not really appear blue but I think that is because the light is influenced by the proximity of a window. In the master closet there is no window. Hindsight being 20/20 I would not have put one in my master closet.

I think I would be happier with the quality of light from the Solatube. Thank you all for the responses.

We have a solar tube in our master bathroom (sorry - I'm not which brand) and we love it. We are building another house right now and we absolutely insisted on using one again. It gives great light during the day and just enough moonlight at night to light the bathroom - almost like a night light. Very pleased with this product.

I confess that my preference for Velux products its due to the fact that I can more easily understand their catalog.

At the time we were looking at these, SunTunnel (now owned by Velux) and SolaTube seemed to be the best quality. We got the SunTunnel because it was the only one available with the low profile that we thought would look better on the front of our house.

Anne

We're putting one in our main bathroom (an interior room with no windows), we've been reading/researching that regardless which brand/ceiling cover you get some degree of a 'blue tint', is this true? The one we'll be putting in will most likely be an 'ODL Tuular Skylight', just curious if anyone else has put one if these in an interior room & still got that blue tint we've been hearing about & just how much 'blue' are we talking about.

As mentioned earlier, natural sunlight appears bluish in contrast with the incandescant lighting commonly used in residences. The "blue" tint can be contravened with the use of yellow (or red or orange, etc.) photographer's filters, usually inserted just above the ceiling fixture. A friend of mine did this with her Solatube at the suggestion of the installer; the result was indeed closer to yellow light of an incandescent.

Currently, we have 1 tube in the bathroom. Unsure as to brand, but my biggest problem with it is that somehow, dirt has fallen on the 'lens' part of the tube, and when you look up at it, it looks dirty. My current contractor says I should be able to unscrew it or twist it off, but I looked, and see no way of doing that without affecting the drywall on the ceiling. He promises me in the new build, the 1 solar tube I have (the spec'ed skylight just wouldn't fit, due to roof valleys, etc) will have a lens that is removeable, to clean.

Any idea what the cost is of a solar tube? Does it heat the room up any? Not sure how that would work in TX summers. But I love the idea. I never thought about how the moon light would also slightly light the room. Interesting post.

I would like to add some to our recently finished home. Does anyone know if you need one for each area you want to add light to or can you split one tube for several small areas?

We are in Oklahoma. We put one in our last home in a kitchen remodel and loved it so much we added one to our new home. It does not heat the room any at all. We can use the room without supplemental lighting during the day. If I recall, the tube is around $300-$350 plus install.

A picture is worth a thousand words. The Solatube Brand (upper right corner) is the original SOLATUBE and has patents on the best technology (lining of tube and fresnel lens in the dome). This means you get MORE light, a BETTER COLOR of light AND even more HOURS of light. See for yourself. Any other brand is an odd color and less daylight. As a general rule, box stores don't always have the best quality so you want to ask yourself what you want in your roof and home? It's worth the few extra dollars to find your local SOLATUBE dealer. You'll love it! Even on cloudy days!

This post was edited by DawnMc on Wed, Dec 31, 14 at 16:25

Thanks DawnMc thats picture does show that different tubes give off different light, to me daylight looks more white than blue, I never believe it when people say daylight has a blueish colour.

Does anyone know what brands the other 3 are?