Sun chimneys

[ChevronB19]

Hey all - I've just moved into an 8 year old detached, which is lovely (old house was 300 years old, and while full of charm, firstly - no garage, secondly, tiny and thirdly, damp and bloody freezing - I'm warm for the first time in 12 years!).

However - the house has a hallway behind a solid door (no window), leading up to a dogleg stairwell (again, no window, I think as it would overlook a neighbour). This means the landing, stairwell and entrance hall are very dark - in other words it means lights on even in the brightest weather.

I'm thinking a sun chimney (or whatever the correct terminology is) would be a solution. The attic is shallow and doesn't have any complicated trusses. It's a pitched roof with slate tiles (although a new build it's been built in the local style - Penrith sandstone etc).

So:

Sun chimney or skylight?

Rough installation cost?

Worth it?

Any planning problems?

I plan keeping the existing stairwell light, but locating the sun chimney to directly above the largest vertical space.

Thanks for any advice/experience!

[battered]

PIR sensor and LED lighting in the hall? To fire escape standard 24/7 and ramping up when something moves, say.

[ChevronB19]

battered said:

PIR sensor and LED lighting in the hall? To fire escape standard 24/7 and ramping up when something moves, say.

Sorry battered, but you're going to have to expand on your comment, I don't know what you mean?

[battered]

Sorry, a PIR detects movement (like the outside lights do) and turns on lighting.

LED lighting costs sod-all to run. You can run it all year for buttons.

Fire escape routes in commercial buildings have to be lit, but it doesn't have to be a lot. Just enough to avoid tripping over the cat when you get up at night.

You can set it up so that you get minimal lighting 24 hours a day, and when it sees you coming it switches on a proper light. The hotel I'm in this week has this feature. Again it's LED so it's cheap to run.

[whoami]

I had a sun tunnel installed in a pretty dark, gloomy room.

It transformed it.

I'd very much recommend having one put it.

[SAB888]

Have seen sunpipes in buildings and they work really well. Not sure how much they are. Try looking at Monodraught, they do them.

[ChevronB19]

battered said:

Sorry, a PIR detects movement (like the outside lights do) and turns on lighting.

LED lighting costs sod-all to run. You can run it all year for buttons.

Fire escape routes in commercial buildings have to be lit, but it doesn't have to be a lot. Just enough to avoid tripping over the cat when you get up at night.

You can set it up so that you get minimal lighting 24 hours a day, and when it sees you coming it switches on a proper light. The hotel I'm in this week has this feature. Again it's LED so it's cheap to run.

Ah, yes, got you - sorry I thought you meant there was some building control issue. Fair point, but I don't want to have artificial lighting all the time - I'd rather walk into the hallway to natural light rather than have to switch lights on, hence the idea of a sun chimney - natural light, but artificially delivered if you like!

[battered]

They had sun chimneys on a Grand Designs job, it was built into a hillside so needed light to the rear. Worked well, for minimal levels of light in a stairwell.

[ChevronB19]

Thanks all - I shall investigate further!

[juice]

Sun Tunnel transformed our landing, can't recommend them highly enough

Edited to add - here's a link to my pictures from when I had it installed

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=160...

Edited by juice on Thursday 23 February 00:37

[Wombat3]

I've got a couple of them - stick with something well known like Velux, they work well. ISTR they come in two sizes - I have the smaller 10" ones but I'd get the biggest you can. Size you can use will probably depend on roof & ceiling structures so get the installer to advise

I'd get a roofer to install it for you because it may mean re-framing some roof timbers & certainly will mean cutting some tiles& installing flashing etc. Clearly you don't want it leaking!

Should be able to do it in a day if its not too complicated.

Don't expect miracles but they do make a good difference.

[JackReacher]

We are having a sun tunnel fitted in next couple of weeks, hoping that it lights up our landing and stairs as well as the example above!

[robwilk]

Another thumbs up for sun tunnels I had one fitted to my oldest lads house when we built the extension and it brilliant so we are now fitting one to my youngest lads for the same reason. recommended mod!!!

[whoami]

Wombat3 said:

I've got a couple of them - stick with something well known like Velux, they work well. ISTR they come in two sizes - I have the smaller 10" ones but I'd get the biggest you can. Size you can use will probably depend on roof & ceiling structures so get the installer to advise

I'd get a roofer to install it for you because it may mean re-framing some roof timbers & certainly will mean cutting some tiles& installing flashing etc. Clearly you don't want it leaking!

Should be able to do it in a day if its not too complicated.

Don't expect miracles but they do make a good difference.

That's a good summary of my experience too.

Used a roofer who fitted Velux. I opted for the 14" one and it made a massive difference.

[Muncher]

Another recommendation for them, we have two here and they work really well. I initially bought the monodraught kit, it didn't do what I wanted and their additional parts were very expensive so I sold it and bought a kit from Velux which was much better.

[Edwin Strohacker]

We have the same problem at ours - previous owner built an extension on the rear of the house which effectively cuts out all the light to the kitchen diner. Being handy, I bought a Velux 14" flexible sun tunnel with the intention of fitting it this spring when the weather pipes down a bit but also being a doofus, I assumed I had the right one & my joists are about 11" - measuring up is for wimps

10" rigid tunnel incoming 14" going on the bay at a painful discount.