Solar Panel Facts

This is the final post in my 3 part series on residential solar lighting. I’ve already addressed outdoor uses for solar lighting, such as security lighting and solar sidewalk lights. But how can you bring the power of the sun inside?

Of course we all know that you can put up solar shingles or residential solar panels, but a lot of us aren’t ready to take that leap just yet. So, what options are available if you want to increase your use of solar power without moving your whole house off the grid? There are some easy, cost effective measures you can take.

One of the easiest uses of solar lighting for your home is also the most obvious– so bear with me. They get better. Almost every person in America with a home has the ability to make some use of solar in your house, and it won’t cost you anything. Utilize your windows. Now, you do want to be smart about this. If it’s blazing hot or freezing cold where you live, you may not be able to leave your windows completely uncovered all day every day. But for great amounts of the day, many of us could turn off almost every light in our house and utilize the power of the sun to light our homes. So, be smart and use what you already have before investing one additional dime in solar lighting for your home.

Now, if you want to make better use of your windows, there is an option you can look into. Called a light shelf, it is primarily designed for tall windows that get a lot of direct sunlight. It allows you to better direct the sunlight and get less glare while still lighting your interior with passive solar lighting. There are internal and external light shelves that both serve different purposes, but if you have really tall windows in your house and are interested in improving the use of passive solar lighting, you should look into light shelves.

While light shelves may be a fairly new idea to many readers, the next solar lighting option has been around for quite a while. Skylights are familiar to most of us as a way to bring the power of the sun inside. You might consider installing a skylight in your bathroom or some other room that lacks enough windows to effectively utilize solar lighting.

While skylights have been around for quite some time, there are some new twists on this familiar method of solar lighting. The first is the solar tube. Basically, these utilize a skylight type system on your roof and reflective tubing to bring solar into rooms where traditional skylights would not work. They provide much better and often more focused lighting than a traditional skylight and lack many of the drawbacks of older skylights (such as glare and heat). They are also a relatively cheap solar lighting option, usually more inexpensive than skylights or even new windows. They can be professionally installed in about half a day and don’t require major renovation. Plus, they may qualify for a federal tax credit.

This is a video about solar tube lighting, so that you can better picture how they work.

These are several ways that you can bring solar lighting inside without installing solar panels. My next articles will address another popular solar application– solar water heaters.