Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a new alternative to skylights called Hybrid Solar Lighting. This design uses a roof-mounted light collector, large-diameter optical fiber, and modified efficient fluorescent lighting fixtures that have transparent rods connected to the optical fiber cables. Essentially no electricity is needed for daytime natural interior lighting.
Field tests conducted in 2006 and 2007 of the new HSL technology were promising, but the low-volume equipment production is still expensive. HSL should become more cost effective in the near future. A version that can withstand windstorms could begin to replace conventional commercial fluorescent lighting systems with improved implementations in 2008 and beyond. The U.S. 2007 Energy Bill provides funding for HSL R&D, and multiple large commercial buildings are ready to fund further HSL application development and deployment.
At night, ORNL HSL uses variable-intensity fluorescent lighting electronic control ballasts. As the sunlight gradually decreases at sunset, the fluorescent fixture is gradually turned up to give a near-constant level of interior lighting from daylight until after it becomes dark outside.
HSL may soon become an option for commercial interior lighting. It can transmit about half of the direct sunlight it receives.
It has been verified that parabolic mirror and Fresnel lens are very appropriate to capture sunlight and to focus it into the bundle of optical fibers. They can be used to illuminate multi-floor buildings.
Read more about this topic: Daylighting
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