What Is Tubular Daylighting?

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There are a number of lighting options available for commercial spaces. At NTX Building Products, we focus on providing natural daylighting to even the largest and most complex of commercial structures. 

So what is tubular daylight? 

Tubular daylighting is an innovative method of providing natural lighting to any and all indoor commercial spaces and structures through the use of semi-rigid, highly reflective tubing.  

Advantages 

There are a number of advantages of utilizing tubular daylighting. Chief among them are the energy costs associated with lighting a commercial space normally, with real lights. The amount of money you can save by incorporating commercial Solatube products into your commercial space, is nothing to scoff at. Not only will you have little need to operate indoor lighting during the day, but the lighting entering your space during the day will be even more brilliant than artificial lighting systems.  Even with today's more efficient LED lighting, these fixtures still emit heat and combined with the heat from window, thermal loads drive increased demand on HVAC systems.  Tubular daylighting units from Solatube have much more efficient thermal properties and thereby increase daylighting without the additional heating or cooling loads of traditional glazing methods or hot LED units.

Also consider the fact that natural lighting provides many advantages over fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs. Studies have shown that employees exposed to natural light in the workplace experience far fewer instances of eye strain, headaches, and fatigue resulting in fewer sick days and healthier work environments. Consider the impacts that such issues can have on workplace productivity, and the decision to incorporate our natural, tubular daylighting devices into your commercial space becomes a simple one. 

How It Works 

Our tubular daylighting devices make use of roof-mounted light collectors that direct light through a  tubular system to each room in need of lighting.   Solatube's daylighting systems  begin with a daylight harvesting dome or structure on the roof that  maximized  the collection of daylight throughout the day.  The harvested daylight is guided through a highly reflective semi-rigid tube allowing that minimizes lighting loss as the light is transferred from the collection point to the delivery point which may be more than 50 feet away after turning 2 or 3 corners along the pathway.  At the point of delivery (or delivery zone), the tube is capped with a diffuser that spreads the light.  It may be spread narrowly for a taller room or to highlight a specific area or it may be spread wide for a lower ceiling or to better fill the room with light.  We also offer transition boxes that will snap into a grid ceiling.  Solatube systems are not available at your local big box retailer to ensure they are installed correctly by a factory certified installer like NTX Building Products.  Making use of patented interior reflective film, optical lenses, diffusers, and controls, Solatube  tubular daylighting systems provide a consistent source of indoor natural lighting. When compared with other methods of providing natural light indoors, no other daylighting system can provide as much light entering the structure as our system.  

And there’s no need to worry about the sun damaging anything exposed to this natural lighting. Our system blocks UV rays that might otherwise cause damage or fading. The design of our systems also limits the infrared wavelengths that would transfer heat into the building. This means that you’re not trading the energy costs associated with lighting your commercial space for the energy costs associated with keeping the building cool! 

Now that you know what tubular daylight is, the advantages of natural light, and how our tubular daylighting devices work, feel free to contact us if you wish to incorporate them into your upcoming commercial projects or if you have any questions.