CFLs or LEDs? How about solar light pipes

January 8th, 2010

Photo: Orion Energy Systems

There’s been a lot of debate as to what the real technological breakthrough is when it comes to eco-friendly lighting. Compact fluorescent bulbs are massive energy savers, but are pretty darn ugly, no matter what color temperature I’ve managed to test out. They also have the nasty problem of containing mercury, which can pose a serious health hazard if the bulb accidentally breaks or isn’t disposed of properly once it’s toast. With LED lighting, there remains the issue of prohibitive price; it’s also been speculated that widespread use of LEDs could worsen light pollution, harming wildlife.

Without risk of sounding like an infomercial, what if there was a solution that actually looked great, didn’t use a drop of electricity, and was free of harmful contaminants like mercury and lead? There is: It’s called a solar light pipe.

It’s basically the same concept as a skylight: A hole is placed in the roof of a building to allow natural sunlight to light a room, but the solar light pipe, or light tube as it’s also called, uses light refraction technology to focus that light to a specific area. When installed in large numbers, the effect is a lot like recessed can lighting (see photo, above).

Why I, wonder, aren’t more greenies talking about this incredibly efficient type of solar lighting? Maybe I haven’t heard a lot about it because many of the big-time green lighting developers, like Orion Energy Systems — who yesterday received a utility patent for its Apollo light pipe system — are focusing on commercial use. (Disclosure: I have a family member employed by Orion; he in no way promised to give me his Prius in exchange for writing this post.)

It seems kind of redundant to put solar panels on a building to help pay the electricity bill for your fluorescent bulbs, when in a lot of sunnier climates you could just skip that step and harness the sun directly.

–Jennifer Grayson