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In this video I want to talk to you about something that's generically called light tunnels
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They're made by different companies. This is actually in my own kitchen
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I installed this light tunnel about 25 years ago and it's done a great job
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The brand I used is called Solatube. That comes from Australia and they actually invented the whole light tunnel concept
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Vlux makes light tunnels too and probably lots of other companies as well
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I've had no trouble with this. It's worked perfectly all this time
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Just to show you the difference that it makes, let me show you what the kitchen looked like before the light tunnel went in
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That's it there. Same kitchen, but just up here you see there's no circular source of light up in top, right above the kitchen sink
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I can tell you it makes quite a difference. I'd strongly recommend these if you want to increase the light and ambience and nice feeling of different rooms in your home
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Light tunnels offer something that no other illuminating option can match. This is what it looks like when it's installed
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This is the bottom end of the light tunnel and as you can see it's giving a lot of light
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This is mostly natural outdoor light. The way it delivers that light into a space is with this here
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This is the tunnel. This is a reflective sheet metal tube. It's kind of like a big fat fiber optic cable in a sense in that it actually transmits light
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In my case, as you can see, it terminates up above on the roof with this flashing and curb and clear dome lens arrangement
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Natural light lands here, goes through the lens and it goes down the tunnel
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In my case, it's actually going through a storage area. It's actually going through one level of the house before it gets down to the kitchen
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That's really the benefit of light tunnels is that you can pipe in light even through floors above to a space down below
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This is the same thing here just with the dome gone so you can see where the reflective tunnel starts
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As I said before, I've had no leaks, no condensation issues, no deterioration whatsoever
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It's just worked really well all this time. A light tunnel can actually deliver light even when it's nighttime outside
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I would strongly recommend you choose a light tunnel that has an internal light fixture which is what you see here
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The light bulbs just screw in place and I have them wired to turn on when the kitchen lights turn on
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We don't need it during the day. There's plenty of sunlight but we still get lots of light at night because as I said, when we turn the kitchen lights on, these lights come on too
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This fixture is completely hidden. It's inside the tunnel so the lens covers it all up
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Bottom line is that you can add light where you really wish you did have light all these years
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It works great, it's reliable, and there's nothing else like it. It's better than a skylight in one sense because you can pipe the light down from a great distance
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even if you want to go through the roof in a place that's not directly over the lens
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These things have elbows and you can curve them. They just work great so I'd strongly recommend light tunnels
