I was talking with a friend a few weeks ago about different things we were trying to do to cut down our energy use and costs and he said that his warehouse in R.I. recently installed solar tubes but he didn't know much about them. Only that they made for a significant cut in their lighting bill and there were some incentives that they took advantage of. He was going to try to get some info. for me but hasn't been able to yet.

We've toyed with solar panel installation but it's currently cost-prohibitive, this sounds like an intriguing alternative. While we do have machinery with 5hp electric motors (that we're gradually replacing with newer 90%+ efficient ones), fluorescent lighting is a significant factor in our electrical usage. Being that we're open 7am-5pm year round we'd be able to take advantage of a good amount of natural lighting during the course of the day. Some may remember we changed all of our older fluorescent light fixtures to new, energy efficient ones at a cost of $9000 and recouped those costs within 2 years so there is (I think) the potential for some sizeable savings.

I'm not even sure what they're called so that's a good place to start.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

don't know about yours but the wal-mart here in town has skylight panels in the roof.during most days they don't even use the flo lights.

Friend had a long light tube in his house. I was unimpressed as it delivered little light, certainly not enough to turn off the electric light. Could be it was in a bad location.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Swamp,

I have 3 of these in the house, in different rooms. During the day, they provide full light for each of the areas they serve. Granted they're in small rooms but even in a larger room, it's possible to reduce the supplementel lighting when the sun is out.

http://www.solatube.com/commercial/index.php

I haven't had any trouble with them and they've been installed for probably 16 years.

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-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

We do have a skylighted area that does make a difference in one section of the warehouse but my concern with adding more is the greenhouse effect. It gets plenty warm in the summer already, I don't know if the tubes are any more or less warming.

I think we'd be in good shape lightwise, 40K sq.ft. of flat roof in the sun all day (one of the reasons we checked into solar), the number of tubes needed to supplement or replace I suppose could be an issue.

We've got (105) 4' fixtures in areas with the roof directly overhead, even if you only cut that in half it would help. Thanks for that link, I'll check out their commercial tubes and see if I can find a local contractor to get more info. It's a rolled Firestone rubber flat roof so I'd imagine they must have some sort of sleeve they could fuse right to the surface to keep them watertight.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

The in laws have three of these tubes in their house. They provide a lot of light all day unlike a skylight. The trick is the optical bubble on the roof that catches light from dawn to dusk. One lights up a kitchen area so I would say that the home use ones are good for about 400 Sqft. I don't know if there are bigger ones for industrial use.

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"I have no convictions ... I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy"

Current
Monika '74 450 SL
BrownHilda '79 280SL
FoxyCleopatra '99 Chevy Suburban
Scarlett 2014 Jeep Cherokee
Krystal 2004 Volvo S60
Gone
'74 Jeep CJ5
'97 Jeep ZJ Laredo
Rudolf ‘86 300SDL
Bruno '81 300SD
Fritzi '84 BMW
'92 Subaru
'96 Impala SS
'71 Buick GS conv
'67 GTO conv
'63 Corvair conv
'57 Nomad

I like it when I see buildings using natural lighting but I think it would be a long payback for a retrofit. If it were new construction the possiblities seem better.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Ditto . . . coupled with long standing advice about NOT putting new holes in a perfectly good roof.

http://www.sunoptics.com/

No affiliation.

Saw a report on it somewhere, thought it was a cool idea.

Well, yes, there is always that too.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Thanks all for the input pro and con. Installed cost is a big factor and I have no idea what these things go for, I guess that would be a logical first step to either further investigation or put the kibosh on it. Like I said we saved almost $4500/yr. just by switching the old fluorescents to new fluorescents. Even if we could only turn off 1/2 of them on most days I would think it could make a sizeable difference. If the ROI is 5-7 years it's got potential, if it's 20 (like solar would be) then we're probably not in a position to make that investment.

Installation would seemingly be pretty simple, it's a flat roof (rubber over foam insulation over corrugated metal). I understand not wanting to make holes in a fairly new roof but we've added some roof vents since then and they seem to be able to fuse the rubber gussets from the vents to the roofing material well. I'd imagine these would be similar. The lowest point for water intrusion is 2' off the surface and under another flange.

Who knows. At least now I know what to call them. I'm intrigued by ways to lower our energy usage which goes right back towards our bottom line. The new fixtures dropped our average electric usage from about $20K per year to just under $16K.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)