Sun Power
In these days of rising energy prices, it really is smart to look at alternatives to the traditional methods of lighting our homes. We’ve come a long way from candles and oil lamps but we are just now catching up to the Romans! I’m not really sure who the Romans borrowed this particular technology from, but they sure did make good use of it in the homes of their wealthy.
Imagine a hole in the roof over one of your darker rooms. Then imagine that no rain or snow gets in but glorious sunlight does! This is a sun tube or sun pipe and the Romans who could afford them used them to grand affect to illuminate the interiors of their villas year-round without having to burn candles or oil lamps.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, the sun tube technology fell out of use. It was very costly to make one because the tube was lined with gold foil to reflect the sunlight down into the interior. Besides, with the rise of the stone fortress/castle, it became harder to make those holes for the tubes to bring light through.
Today, thanks to a lot of space technology, we have fantastic reflective surfaces that cost pennies compared to gold foil at around $900 an ounce. These new reflectors are even more efficient than gold. Plus we can now make domes of different types of glass and plastic so that almost any type of light can be allowed in or blocked out. After all, you would not want ultraviolet rays cooking your rugs and furniture and fading the colors.
Today, everyone can afford a sun tube! You don’t have to be Bill Gates.
I learned about these sun tubes in the latest issue of Equestrian, the magazine of the United States Equine Federation. They have a little section called “Going Green.” Well, from our perspective as horse slaves, green is great, especially in the pasture, but saving on the power bill is even better! With sun tubes installed in barn or riding arena there is no need to burn lights during the day.
We are certainly installing these little dandies in our new barn and after that a few are going into the kitchen, lounge, and office in the house. This is the kind of green technology that is not only really practical but does not cost an arm and a leg like photo voltaic panels for generating your own electricity. Starting at around $150 you can have daylight in one of your dark rooms all day long.
Just think of the savings in money and energy. A very conservative estimate involving the use of only one sun tube replacing only five hours of electric light for five days a week results in a savings of 390 kilowatt hours annually. Multiply that by four or five and assume that you do use your home seven days a week and we are looking at some significant savings here.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am going to get Jamerson’s to order in a bunch of these for us. It may not be practical to go off grid in Virginia just yet, but at least we can reduce the number of dollars we send to the Southside Electrical Cooperative every month!
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