Was your skylight too bright this summer?

If you’ve been reading through some of the material here on the Solatube Australia website, then you may have noticed that some of our round skylights come with dimmers. When you read that, you may have asked yourself two questions:

1. Why would you want to dim or switch off the light from a skylight?

2. How can you dim a tubular skylight; how does that work?

So, here are a few answers.

Why Would You Want Dimmers on Skylights?

Tubular skylights are better with dimmers for the same reasons that electric lights are better with dimmers and off switches, and windows are better with blinds or curtains. Sometimes, you want to reduce or eliminate interior lighting during the daytime. The sun can be harsh and bright, and Solatube skylights are very efficient at capturing as much of its light as possible and bringing it to your interior rooms. Sometimes you simply want to eliminate glare. You may want soft, romantic lighting for a special meal. Perhaps your small child needs to take a nap. Maybe you’ve been working a late shift or have just arrived from overseas and need to sleep during the day. There’s an endless number of reasons why being able to control the amount of light coming from your Solatube round skylight is a good idea.

How Do Solatube Dimmers Work?

Solatube dimmers are actually butterfly baffles inside the tube that can be opened and closed remotely, usually from a switch on the wall. Just picture a lens opening and closing and you have the general idea. They require an electrician to install and a small amount of electricity to run. It’s a simple system, and it may work exactly the way you imagined when you first heard about it.

Are Dimmers Available For All Solatube Models?

Dimmers are available for the Solatube 160DS and 290DS, our two mass-market round skylight models. We also have dimmers available for our commercial skylights. With switches, dimmers and Smart LED systems, Solatube Skylights function much like incandescent globes with dimmers. If you’ve switched to compact fluorescents for your electric lighting, then you may be missing that functionality.

So, there you have it. The dimmers are a simple, efficient, electrically powered option that makes it possible to smoothly dim our skylights, or cut off the light from them completely. They’re great for those times when you want mood lighting, media lighting or darkness for sleeping during the day, and they make our tubular skylights function like high-end electrical lighting. Purchase dimmers for your skylights and add on the Smart LED, and you’ll have what we believe to be the most highly functional, beautiful and efficient interior lighting available today.