Daylighting Article in Innovative Home Magazine - Parans Solar Lighting
I'm one of those people who suffers bad from seasonal affective disorder. In the summertime I can go on very little sleep and always feel great. In the winter I can hardly stay awake an hour after the sun goes down, which is only about 5:00 PM here in Michigan. It's like I run on sunlight. When I don't get enough I'm a totally different person.
As a "light person" I tend to like really bright rooms. I want all the lights on all the time (which drives my wife nuts). Of course, that can be hard on the wallet and on the planet. I like houses that let the light pour in, which is probably a big part of what draws me to modern homes. But you've got to design for it. Daylighting is an all too often overlooked aspect of home design that makes a huge difference in how the house feels to live in.
The new summer 2007 issue of Innovative Home Magazine has a great article on daylighting called "Here Comes the Sun." It talks about insulated daylighting panels (IDPs) that let in soft light yet don't overheat the house, the good old Solatube, and a slick new take on skylighting, the Parans Solar Panel. With this system, special rooftop mounted panels collect sunlight, which is then distributed through a house via fiber optic cables. It is eventually diffused and distributed into a room by a Parans Luminaire, which helps recreate the feeling of natural sunlight indoors.
This is soooo me. What a great technology. High tech innovation has finally come to housing in a big way. By the way, the Parans system can include, as an option, tracking systems to help the rooftop panels collect maximum sun, and Luminaires paired with fluorescent lighting for the hours when the sun isn't shining. Pretty slick.
Our houses today may be the modern manifestations of our primitive ancestor's cave dwellings, but there's no need to live in the dark. Thankfully, there's some great technology out there to make your house sunny and bright, naturally.
Oh yeah - I almost forgot, the article in Innovative Home also talks about Shigeru Ban's Naked House, the ultimate example of a daylit home (and one of my favorite houses - it's just amazing).
Image credit - Parans site
2 comment(s):
This "Here Come the Sun" article, it talks about natural system (which is represented by IDP, Solatube) and synthetic system (represented Parans Solar). Both have advantages and inadvantages.
Oh, you're absolutely right. The best thing to do would be to use a combination of strategies. The Parans system is great if you have a really dark space and you want to get some natural light to it. You know, if you wanted to, you could even use it to light a dark basement. How cool is that! Personally, I'm a serious believer in technology, but there are great simple, traditional, natural design approaches too. Unfortunately, the typical American spec house uses too few of either. We need smarter design, particularly passive solar strategies, and we can benefit from bringing a little more technology into our homes too. Thanks for the comment!
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