skylights

Hey has anyone thought of or used the new dome skylights that can be ducted to a specific area of the house? Could maybe work for a veg room? Just a thought, was at the local home supply store and saw one for $130.00. No heat, no electricity, maybe supplement with some cfl or t5 if neccesary? Or maybe they block to much of the good stuff and wont work at all?

i see ya peakin but you aint speakin lol. Anyone? I know i know f*&^%$* noobs.

those would work if you had a few of them in a room or the plants could be placed close to them, i would forget the t5s for supplement lighting and go with a small hps or halide, maybe 150-250 watts for a small grow because flourescents loose lots of intensity quickly as you move away from them, i would say if you try it get a light meter and take measurements throughout the day then decide if you need more light

thats what i thought. I can actually focus the light on a specific area. I was thinking maybe run a couple shining down and then duct a couple to shine up from the floor. I also was thinking of using a light mover and maybe a 150 hqi mh. Cant be to specific but i have access to all wattages of hps, mh,t5,t8,t12,cfls and the ballasts to run em. So lighting isnt an issue, but i was trying to do this with as little electricity as possible. Keep in mind this is only for veg. Flower is done off site.

forgot to thank you for the reply.

i just finished a retro fit on old 4 story factory they turned into a apartment complex. beautiful apartments. 14' ceilings. windows to the ceiling in the living room of every apartment.

there was one flaw. the non-union contractor who hired the non English speaking, illegal workers fucked up. the results was a area of 4'x4'x14' right in front of that window tucked in the corner of the living room. all i could think about was that would be a cheap grow room.

could you raise the plants up to the skylight? or would they be sitting at ground level.

how high is the skylight?

seems it be best of both worlds. imagine hydroponics with the power of the sun.

this is something i have thought about before. but more along the lines of a platform that could be raised up to the skylight. where it would get the full effect of the sun. plants would be in a bubble if you will. away from the rain, wind, bugs, there would be no need for supplemental lighting if you could get within a foot or so from the skylight. i dont see why it would not work. now keep in mind i grow just for personal, small scale.

i think of the greenhouses with the retractable roofs. same principle in theory. IMO.

Only problem is if you ran lights at night you would have a big glow coming from the top of your house.

u could make some kind of shades for the skylight.but then you would have to make sure your lights were on in the day time for flowering...I like night time because its usually colder...I pump in fresh air so

im just thinking of veg only and i could supplement 2hrs before sunrise and 2hrs after sunset to get 16 to 18 hrs of light depending on the season. theres a perfect spot in the attic thats well insulated, ventilated, and 6 foot tall. The skylights could be anywhere from inches to feet away if need be. Trying to do a perpetual small grow we're liscensed for 12 plants so might as well have em going non stop right.

They don't pass enough light to be of use unless your roof looked like bugeyes it had so many of them and that would look suspicious, someone would figure out why.

Nice thought for a little cabinet grow perhaps though, 2sf maybe.

I don't know about not passin enough light the one i saw (installed) lit up a 15 x 15 room pretty damn good. I wonder if different brands allow more or less light? This one was so bright that the guy wanted to know if it could be tinted or something.

You can light up a bedroom really really bright with a 150w halide, it'll seem incredibly bright, but it won't support growing in that whole room, that's the difference.

Don't forget clouds and when the sun moves beyond optimum either. It's catching a fraction of what's there and most of the time the sun is too off angle to get what you might expect in a demo setup if they used a fake light source. Go check it in person at other than optimum times if it is in real use and see, what I've seen is just an hour or so window of good light for a tiny grow.

Maybe it's of some use... Maybe some are better... I'm just saying don't get your hopes up for real growth.

here is a little research i did.
the manufactures say that you can receive 160,000 lumens on a 4x4 at 8ft

this wont work. http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/2004-02-01/Sunshine-From-a-Tube.aspx


this first link has some good info. most not pertaining to what we are talking about. there are some calculators for lumens and other stuff, so make it through the last few page or you will miss some stuff.

http://www.newbuildings.org/downloads/photometrics/PEC_4_June.pdf

another with some cool info. a little technical.
http://www.h-m-g.com/downloads/Papers/Skylight__photometry_21_IESNA_2002.pdf



i think its totally possible. how do you explain the greenhouse if it not possible.
i not talking about a 2x2 sky light, not a conventional skylight, the ceiling elevation would have to be low, maybe 8ft. with supplemental lighting, why would it not work. there will be no stealth to it, but not everyone needs stealth.

But the original poster is not talking about using a bunch of real skylights to create basically a greenhouse. That would work.

What he is talking about is those round eyeball shaped things that go on the roof, collect light and send it bouncing back and forth in a metal tube until it comes out the other end. By the time it get out the other end it's probably bounced around 10 times being reflected off of just aluminum. There is no way that I'll believe it's that effective until I see it.

You're stuck on the idea like I'm stuck on other crazy grow ideas and you don't want to give it up so what I'd suggest is you just try it and prove me wrong. Pick some room in your house that you want one of those tubes in anyway like a bathroom and just temporarily try to grow under it and see how it goes.

If it fails, you still have a new "sorta skylight" in your bathroom. If it works, you're a hero and you'll probably start a trend.

I don't know if I already mentioned it or not but I installed 5 2x4 regular skylights in my house here. I have thought long and hard about using them but as I watched them over time, watched the angle of light change with the seasons and just the track it takes every day not one of my skylights would be as effective as my smallest lights.

yea i missed the tube skylight thing in the begining. my last post had a link to that particular tube light, and i stated that i didnt think that will work.

i skimmed through the thread then got side tracked on my own thoughts. and threw a post in there after. sorry to stray off topic.

i have a shed on the property a A frame structure. when i am inside that shed that's all i can think of is turning it into a low cost winter veg and mother room. open the roof or skylights throw in a little heat. use T5s to get the rest of the 18hrs for veg. i have seen these louvers that will close off the light coming from inside.