Things have been a little slow around the house this past week (‘tis the season, right?), so there hasn’t been much progress of late, however I did manage to climb up on the roof again to take a closer look at the completed roof and sun tunnel installation. As I mentioned previously, we have two Velux _“Rigid Low Profile Sun Tunnel Skylights”_ in the house, one in the walk-in closet and another in the en-suite bathroom.
The instructions state that they’re intended for pitched roofs only (between 15° and 60°), but they work fine so long as they’re raised up and away from possible snow buildup. In our case, they are installed on a box that stands about a foot off the roof, with the waterproof membrane covering the sides and the factory flashing on top. We had to bend the flashing to properly fit the box (which caused the paint to chip off at the edges), but everything appears to fit nicely. We’ll have to repair and paint the flashing later so it’ll standup to the weather well, plus we obviously need to caulk everything too.
The tunnels themselves are actually pretty rudimentary, made up of a highly-reflective metal tube that connects into the dome on the roof. The tube extends down through the roof and once the drywall has been installed, a defuser is installed into the bottom, flush with the ceiling.
At $270 each, they’re relatively inexpensive and I’m quite impressed with the amount of light they let into each room. However, that extra light is a little concerning given its proximity to the bedroom (I’d prefer there wasn’t a lot of light spilling into the bedroom first thing in the morning). To combat this issue, we’ve installed a pocket door at the entrance of the walk-in closet that will allow us to blackout the room. I’m all for the extra natural light… but only when we’re actually awake.
good point – I am a design grad student researching the health potentials in smart design… here is an excerpt about exposure to sunlight:
“When the sun goes down the pineal gland signals the production of melatonin to increase, which in turn signals the body that it is time to sleep. In the morning when sunlight enters the eye, the pineal gland signals production of melatonin to decrease and that of serotonin to increase. Serotonin wakes us up and keeps us in a good mood, bringing emotional stability and allowing us to see the sunny side of life! Sunlight hitting bare skin is also very important. The body requires sunlight on the skin to be able to produce vitamin, which has important mood modulating properties of its own, as well as playing a role in influencing other important chemicals.”
So exposure to sun in the morning in order to get going instead working against your body’s internal clock and medicating on caffeine would be an incredibly smart decision for many reasons. Research demonstrates that exposure to our natural environment (sun is just a part) promotes numerous health benefits – i could write a novel here… but just some food for thought.
awesome site by the way – i will be fallowing it.