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by wholinator2 748 days ago
I'm currently renting. But i just want to add that the skylight in my house is the single best thing about it. I'm in a location which is pretty well shaded on all sides of my house. The windows that i do have are relatively small and do not let in all that much light. My house is permanently dim, great for sleeping, terrible for starting work in the morning.

In this scenario, the skylight in my bathroom while i do the morning ready is a godsend. Are there other better solutions? I'm sure there are, but is the prevalence of issues with properly installing skylights much larger than the prevalence of issues with windows?
1 comments
toomuchtodo 748 days ago
Would a faux skylight led panel serve this purpose? Windows occasionally must withstand driving rain, a roof must withstand falling rain (on whatever cadence your climate dictates, Florida vs California are wildly different environments for example). Broad strokes, water is the enemy and you’re attempting to avoid intrusion whenever possible.
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alright2565 748 days ago
This is a rabbit hole :)

In short, no, unless you have tens-of-thousands[1][2] to spend on this panel. Rays of sunlight are parallel, an effect that very difficult to emulate.

There are folks who have developed DIY versions, with impressive results[3], but in that case you're trading off way more effort, potentially requiring maintenance, and a lot more space required.

[1]: https://www.coelux.com/en/home-page/index [2]: https://hometronics.com/about-us/press/item/coelux-the-40000... [3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bqBsHSwPgw

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toomuchtodo 748 days ago
I’m talking a $100 LED panel from Home Depot, not a full replacement to create a virtual skylight. Is it the appearance of sky or just the light? The light is easy, seeing sky (real or virtual) is hard.

Example: https://www.homedepot.com/p/JONATHAN-Y-2-ft-x-4-ft-Skylight-...

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alright2565 748 days ago
I'm aware of those--I have one, except mine is 5x brighter. It's just not the same.

It doesn't cast the gorgeous shadows sunlight does. It creates glare that makes having the panel surface directly visible, no matter how obtuse the angle, unacceptable.

Sunlight's parallel rays make it so that it's not your window that's bright, it's the things that your window shines light on that are lit up. You can look at your window or the sky all day without any discomfort. And that's just not the case for traditional light panels.

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