Fiber optic lighting for bright natural light, in a building.
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The optical fibre is only to conduit the light which you have to put into it. And in the open air you never get there enough light to enlight a room. You should have used some mirrors or lentils to get there enough light, just the way the Parans do. And the light don't fly away from the fiber as you don't bend it too much. You should ask the seller or google it, how much you can bend it to make the light stay in the fiber. No coating could help you. Once it leak out, you never get it back, except if it leaves at the end of the fiber. There you could use the light for whatever purpose you wish, including to tie it into another optic fibre. However, for this purpose there are welding aparates that costs at least hundreds of dolars. It is almost impossible to join it in hands in order to proper function. Instead of optical fibre, rather use mirror tunnels. Or buy it from the first link in this topic.
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Ah well that is very helpful, so you're saying I will need a way to focus more light, that's just fine -- how about a small dome like they do for skylights?
Also would it help if I cover the tube in a reflective material?
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As I said before, any coverage of the fibre doesn't help to lead the light better, nor reduces leaks of light, when you bend it too much. In other cases, no leaks happens. However, don't worry about too much careful bending, it usually stands quite much. Just bend it for example on 10-20cm by 90°, don't do sharp edges. When the light leaks, you can even see it leaking. So you can try to bend it on the end of the cable. Usually, it breaks inside, if you bend it way too much, and this break point is clearly visible when you tie up enough light insinde that optical fibre. Pointing the end of fibre at the sun may tie up enough light to see the breaks. So don't worry, just test it, and after tests, just throw away the broken pieces. Anyway, to use it as a light, pointing the end at the sun is not sufficient. It doesn't tie up enough light. Maybe try to get some information from the compay who makes that appliances, at least look at it, how it is made. You may olso try to contact them, like you were interested in their good and wanted to make an order, and ask them for everything you would like to know. And maybe they tell you something useful.
P.S. And to the reflective material - just forget it - it has no sense of doing it, you can't tie up the light from the sides. It can only leak (but it usually doesn't). To tie up some light, you have to do it at the ends of the fibre. It would be the best to use some lentils. Or, you could use about 1000 pcs of optical fibres and point them to the sun. Then it will do enough light on the other side. Actually, how much does it cost from that Paran company? -
Also I would have mentioned you can buy a coated optical fibre, or some optical cable, with many optical fibres in it. It is coated just to prevent mechanic damages. It has a better mechanic characteristics, for example you can bend it without worries of breaking the fibre. It is more flexible when coated. However, it must be coated from production, not covered by yourself.
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That is very informative! I really appreciate all the information.
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For a lot of structures, the cheaper version of this is the Solatube, or VELUX's "Sun Tunnel". Home Depot has some kits from $150-250, and for a normal house you can usually find a contractor to do the work for <$1000.
(But if you have constrained spaces or basements to light, the fiber stuff sounds really cool.)
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Yeah I was thinking of darker spaces but I don't have a basement.
I'll probably start off with the large tubes because it's easier.
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yes, light tunnels (which I mentioned anyway, as a "mirrors") are quite better, easier and cheaper solution
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Yep, also, I don't think I'll like the metallic material they put in the big tube, so do you think they would be O.K. with just not putting that in there, and leaving it white instead?
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No there have to be some reflective material, be that glassy mirror, shiny metal or whatever shiny. In case that sides of tunnel will be just white, it would lead much less light. So it would be inefficient and only wasted money and/or your work. Let the metal there to do it's purpose and just cover the hole with something that blurrs the view into the tube so you won't see the metal. I would do it this way.
