Natural Solar Lighting From SunPipe

	Four 2-ft. long SunPipe-13's were installed into this 30 x 40 foot living room providing natural light and energy to the inviting décor. The homeowner was considering four traditional skylights but decided she didn't need a view of the sky and would rather save $9,000 over the next 10 years in heating and cooling energy.

(HIT) - Thinking about getting a skylight? Did you know it will make a permanent change to the structure and energy-efficiency of your home? And, with energy costs going way up, this could be a big deal. There are natural solar roof lighting alternatives.

For example, there is a way to bring as much or more natural light indoors while removing only a fraction of the roof insulation which a traditional skylight removes.

According to Greg Miller, inventor of the solar tube, and owner of the Sun Pipe Company, Inc., (Elgin, IL), you'll save over $200 of heating and cooling energy, every year, by installing a SunPipe® instead of a traditional skylight.

First marketed in 1991 as the SunLight Pipe®, Mr. Miller's natural solar roof lighting has been installed in thousands of homes, offices, airports, schools, warehouses, government buildings, zoos, wineries and breweries, UN offices in Africa, a police station in the United Arab Emerites, Government buildings in Israel, even offices located 30 miles from the north pole. What makes SunPipe® so popular? Simple! You get all the benefits of daylight without all the energy-wasting and maintenance problems of skylights.

"You illuminate a space using natural daylight with minimal impact on the structural and insullative integrity of the building," says Miller. "Most people like interior spaces with natural solar roof lighting but, using skylights, you get baked in the summer (high air-conditioning bills), you get cold drafts and condensation in the winter (higher heating bills) plus, you get color-fading and UV damage to furnishings because of direct sunlight exposure, and you get a high probability of an eventual roof leak. Back in 1989, my at-the-time 80-year old uncle thought there must be a better way to skylight... and he was right."

Instead of just putting a window on your roof and letting the sun shine in, a super-reflective natural solar roof pipe reflects daylight from above your roof, through your attic space, to a ceiling-mounted diffuser.

When the daylight reaches the diffuser, it glows quite brightly. SunPipe solar lights can provide the equivalence of over 1000 watts of daylight (depending on pipe diameter and length). "Think of it this way," says MiIler. "A 2 x 4 skylight provides 8 sq. ft. of area that the sun can shine in through. Then there is usually a drywalled shaft bridging the attic space, where a lot of the daylight gets lost before coming out through the ceiling opening, and then usually straight down to the floor. However, a 1 sq.ft. SunPipe can also deliver 8 sq. ft. of daylight because the sun shines deeply into the pipe, and all that light ends up on a 1 sq. ft. diffuser which glows, spreading daylight throughout the room."

"It's been 15 years now and I'm still amazed at how well the SunPipe natural solar light works." says Miller. "I get customers calling me years after installation just to say, ‘thanks.'"

Daylight doesn't just brighten a room, it makes rooms come alive. Our bodies, like most other animal species, are designed for daylight. We need daylight. We see better, we feel better and we're more positive-thinking. We even sleep better, simply because exposure to daylight keeps us connected to nature, resetting our bio-rhythm clock.

SunPipe® natural solar lighting is available in three diameters: A 9" diameter SunPipe-9 lights-up a 10 x 10 room, a SunPipe-13 lights a 16 x 16 room and a SunPipe-21 lights a 20 x 20 room. You may have seen SunPipe® featured on TV or in numerous national publications over the past 15 years. They are simple and they do what the manufacturer claims. But, they are not available at local stores. To be sure you get the original SunPipe®, you must go to a small business that sells them because the Sun Pipe Company only sells through other small businesses. "We're a small business," says Miller, "and we believe small business is the backbone of our great nation. But, with big business flourishing, making products outside this country, it's hurting our country. We're just doing our part to help keep manufacturing at home instead of in China or Mexico."

The average installed price of a SunPipe® is $400 to $700. See sunpipe.com or call toll-free 1-800-844-4786 for more information.