Solar Whiz Lights: The Tubeless Skylight Alternative

Solar LED lights (also marketed as ‘Solar Skylights‘ or ‘Imitation Daylighting Devices‘) fill an important niche in home lighting. Traditional roof skylights comply with Section J of the National Construction Code (Roof Lights), which highlights the following:

…Roof light […] means a skylight, window, or the like installed in a roof—

(a) to permit natural light to enter the room below; and
(b) at an angle between 0 and 70 degrees measured from the horizontal plane.

Solar LED systems do not provide natural light, but they do provide artificial light through solar-powered LEDs. Artificial lighting complies with Australian Standard (AS/NZS 1680:0), which is entirely separate to skylights and roof lights in general.

In order to clarify the difference between traditional skylighting/daylighting systems and what used to be referred to as ‘Solar Skylights’ (now solar LED systems), we’ve set out to compare the two products.

Roof Skylights – What Are They?

Comparing roof skylights to Solar LED lights is a bit like comparing apples with oranges. While the two share the common goal of providing light to your home interior, they do so in fundamentally different ways.

Roof skylights (also known as roof lights, roof solar skylights, or tubular skylights) channel the sun’s light directly into your home, providing natural lighting with the sun’s availability. These can be quite fashionable, allowing for statement architecture pieces or feature lights.

Here’s a handy shortlist of some of the pros & cons for both Solar LED systems, as well as roof skylights.

Roof Skylight Cons:

1) Heat Contribution

Roof spaces (without a skylight) already contribute to about 25-35% of the heat in your home. A skylight is literally a window for the sun’s heat and light to radiate into your home. No amount of glazing is going to prevent that.

2) UV Radiation

While you’re getting daylight in your home, UV radiation will also enter your home. This will cause the progressive fading of fabrics and objects in the light over time. You need to be especially mindful about this if you have expensive furniture and/or paintings in the room.

3) Prone to Damage

Hail storms frequently destroy large numbers of skylights throughout Australia (Check this link for an example of a broken skylight after a hail storm in Texas), often with severe consequences for homes and/or contents. Damage and leak repairs for skylights is big business, and expensive—a quick internet search confirms this.

4) Limited Options for Placement

The structure of your roof limits your options for where to place a skylight—and it is virtually impossible to get daylight from a skylight into lower floors of multi-storey buildings

5) Expensive to Install

It takes a qualified builder or contractor to install a roof skylight, which can come with high labour and installation costs, especially if your skylight is being installed after the home has been built.

6) Cumbersome

Some skylights (particularly rectangular roof light shafts) can take up large volumes of the area in your roof space, reducing storage area or even obstructing airflow for ventilation.

7) Single Lighting Outlet

Most skylights only have a single lighting outlet. This can mean that light concentrates in one area of the room, rather than evenly distributing light and properly illuminating the entire space. Installing an additional skylight to counteract this will most likely cost just as much as the first skylight.