Somebody realized it would be cool if you wired up some fiber-optic cable to a big satellite-dish shaped mirror on a roof that always points at the sun.
Fiber optic cable transmits light very well over short distances, and as such, you can run some cable from the roof into the building and get sunlight – natural sunlight – all through the building, as long as the sun is up. It even works if its partly sunny, because there’s so much more ambient light from the sun, compared to lighting we use. Ever turn on a lamp during the day in a bright sunny room? You can’t really tell the lamp is on. Same deal. You’re pumping all that super-bright sunlight into the building, so you can spread out the sun’s light to a lot of rooms.
What is this ideal for? Well, its not so good for homes, because homes like lighting during the night. No sun, no light. But guess what – Americans use more electricity for lighting during the day than at night. What it is good for is the workplace.
The ideal place is short large-area buildings commonly found in quickly-built office parks, and warehouse type construction where internal lighting is required because large parts of a building have no natural light. Sunnier regions will benefit more. Sorry Pittsburgh and Seattle.
Once you get the cable laid down, the energy cost is virtually zero. It just needs a 9 volt battery to run a GPS monitor and a little motor so that the Mirror on the roof always points at the sun. The cable is about as complicated to install as wiring up normal electric overhead lighting, though more expensive. For taller buildings, they need to use a different kind of fiber optic cable that costs way more, so anything over 4 stories is not cost saving at this point.
Like the compact-fluorescent bulb, the cost savings grow over time.
They also have a tax-benefit for installing systems like this.
There are other psychological benefits that go with using natural light too. Its an intangible, but if they can show that people working in natural light have higher attendance and less sick days, then it could add to the savings of a solar lighting system.
Only a few buildings have currently installed this solar lighting system, but I would really like to see some feedback from both people who work in these places, and the financial numbers from the companies.
I admit, this one is a lot more experimental than the compact-fluorescents, but it sure sounds cool.
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2 comments:
Very cool posts man. I will make sure next time I buy a light bulb, I will rock the compact-fluorescent bulb. But how do these compare to the LED bulbs?
A good point Kurt. LED's are currently not ready for normal lighting use though. They just don't throw off enough light. They're great for reading lights or desklamps however.
The ones I just looked up on the internet cost about $30 a piece for the strength of about a 5 watt bulb.
But the power consumption is great, and it'd be cool to see how LEDs progress.
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