Sun Pie Vs Solatube Vs Tubzzz

[Brown and Boris]

Anybody installed one of these sunshine pipe lights?

I am tempted by the tubzzz for my windowless bathroom because it has a much flatter roof profile and they also do a loft ventilator, but wondered if anyone had any experience with any of these three manufactuters and how much they paid to install?

[GreenV8S]

No personal experience but I remember an episode of Grand Designs where they showed a huge light tube to light an underground house. It failed abysmally - totally ineffective.

[Autonotiv]

Sunpipes are very good, but the longer the tube / the more bends the more light is lost.

[evo4a]

All the sunpipes I have seen installed have worked OK, just don't expect too much really, they are effective but can't match a window.

[Brown and Boris]

Our roof is only a few feet from the bathroom ceiling so I hope it won't lose to much light on the journey. Just spoke to the neighbours has one 6m below the roof and he paid £180 to have installed, says it was the best improvemnet they have ever made to their house for the money.

[B17NNS]

I fitted a sunpipe in a property a few years back in a bathroom without a window.

Not very impressed with the amount of light to be honest.

I would recommend a velux in the loft, cut a hole in the ceiling, build a little stud wall around it, board, skim and insulate.

More pricy solution (especially if you can't or don't want to do any of the above yourself) but far superior.

[Brown and Boris]

B17NNS said:

I fitted a sunpipe in a property a few years back in a bathroom without a window.

Not very impressed with the amount of light to be honest.

I would recommend a velux in the loft, cut a hole in the ceiling, build a little stud wall around it, board, skim and insulate.

More pricy solution (especially if you can't or don't want to do any of the above yourself) but far superior.

That isn't an easy option as we are in a conservation are and the conservation guy was keener on the sunpipe, also the bathroom ceiling is small and already has lights, a loft hatch, extracter vents and we would have to use one particular sude of the roef to avoid it being seen from the road which conservation man wanted.

[mechsympathy]

We have a sunpipe (don't know the manufacturer, sorry) on our landing and I'm genuinely impressed with it. It's as good as the boarded out skylight we had in our last house, on moonlit nights we don't need the lights on.

[mrmaggit]

Velux do a sunpipe type thing, looks a whole lot better than the others, as it looks like a roof window not a semi-circular "bubble".

They do two types, solid and flexible. I've fitted a flexible one, no problem as long as you READ THE INSTRUCTIONS, gives a useful amount of light. The solid ones are better, but then I did offset the one I installed to show the amount of light let through one offset by one complete truss.

HTH

[Brown and Boris]

The Sunpipe basic kit is about £379, and the Solartube a bit less. The Sunpipe one is available as a 'heritage' flat version but it is lots more dosh. As usual adding the 'H' word seems to add perceived value.

The Tubzzz version is not bubble like, more of a bump hybrid version and significantly cheaper but I wonder if that more reasonable price comes at a cost in terms of efficiency. However, I can get a 16 inch Tubzzz for around half the price of a 12 inch Sunpipe, so any efficiency problems might be overcome with the larger version.

[mrmaggit]

We supply the Velux ones for a lot less than that, the flexible ones are cheaper than the rigid. Both are 14" Diameter, and look like standard roof windows, not those awful bubble efforts.