Mirror Window Lighting

[CmeBREW]

Greetings RE-friends!

     This simple idea has probably been done many times before, so if it has recently, then just consider it a reminder, or possibly for the newer ones on the site. I made a very simple mirror window light to reflect sun light thru my window and onto the ceiling, thus GREATLY increasing the light in the room and saving valuable CFL watts from being used from my small renewable energy system. Power saved in the day boils down to much more TV watching at night on my big power hungry 27" TV.

The sun rises in the East, and I work for many hours a day in a center room that has only one small window on the east side. At about 10am the sun goes higher and there simply is not much light that comes in the window. I have been using a 23 watt CFL bulb and a 13 watt CFL bulb in the ceiling lights of this room for over a year now. But now I thought up something better.  The following is the BEFORE and AFTER photos after I installed my mirror window reflector in my small window:



Here is with the mirror reflector: (photo taken seconds later)


Now I save ALOT of precious Watts each day the sun is shining until about 2pm in the afternoon when the sun passes the downspouting on this side of the house. Even after this time it still helps alot. Until this time, it shins brightly on the white ceiling and it lights up the room with NATURAL light just like a skylight!

It also lights up my living room TWICE as bright now.(I made 2 of them)  This room is on the North side, so sun never came in directly thru the small side window, but now I reflect it in and onto the ceiling! It is easy and quick to adjust by lowering the window alittle bit and pulling on the two strings. It only needs to be adjusted a couple times a day. (or more, if you want to 'milk the system')



I think it don't look too bad from the outside. I think this is the 'look of the future'. (especially after everyone's electric bill goes up 20% this year--and about 100% in a couple of years. Time to invest in solar panels people!!)








It was fairly easy to make. I bought a long 4' "cheap" mirror from 'Lowes home center' for $6.  I cut it in two with a glass cutter and make wood frames around the 1/8" thick glass (mirror). I painted it white and put alittle silicon caulk around the inside frame. I then screwed two strings (or ropes) to the top of the frame and one string to the center of the bottom. The strings simply go thru the window and the window holds the strings in place until adjustment is needed according to the angle of the sun.





I am very happy with the results. Its like living in a greenhouse.

Also I believe the NATURAL light makes me happier. (something about promoting 'free radicals' in my cells???)

I know that this idea is SO simple it's almost stupid. But perhaps someone might find it remotely interesting and decide to try it themselves to save some WATTS during the day in order to be able to watch more TV at night!

(P.S. -For safety, always have a frame around that glass. Kids run around a house in the dark without thinking. We're not too bright when we're kids.)

[hydrosun]

I got the same idea a few years ago. I saw on the Zomeworks website that they had a product to reflect more light down a  skylight.  So I put a bunch of 1 foot square  mirrors at the base of some windows in the living room and the light was reflected onto the 12 foot ceilings of my underground house. Even when there isn't any direct sunlight , the mirrors reflect the sky and put more light into the house.

 Thinking as an optimum design for solar heat gain, windows could be made much smaller and use mirrors arranged like a solar cooker. That way less heat would be lost out windows in the winter but still capture light from  as big an area as before. And windows on the north side of a house could be smaller and get  direct sunlight that isn't  even possible without the mirror. I see so many houses with large windows that are covered with curtains and blinds.  If the windows were opaque the blinds could be eliminated and the windows made much smaller for the  same amount of light input. I doubt if many of the blinds are ever opened. Solar-components.com are selling polycarbonate panels that are filled with aerogel that can have an R value as high as R-4 and still let in 50% of the light. And at a cost lower than other  high R value window systems using argon and heat mirrors.

I haven't tried all these ideas but  I'd consider some of these when designing a new house.

Chris

[Disaster Transport]

Love the idea, and especially the implement of your step by step procedures, verry helpfull for all to understant the process of good work and documentation to benefit others..Although I saw some descrepencies in the seconds later photo. Some things seemed to change position within the before and after oh well Im sure it is a verry usefull solution to lighting problems and power conservation.  Keep up the good work and who knows maybee you will build a VAWT next and impress everyone..

[CmeBREW]

DisasterTransport,

Thanks, You are right. I believe I 'straightened up' inbetween the photos. Got the bags off the table, kicked the box, and moved my thermos of coffee. It may have been 30 seconds or a minute. I did take a few different photos in case one was out of focus. It may be the wrong photo. Sorry if it is. I didn't pay very close attention. But that is the accurate difference in light though. I didn't even think about the difference, I was in a hurry. It is difficult to remember everything. I did forget to mention that I used my table say to make the grooves in the wood frames for the mirror to slide into, and that I put a screw in each corner of the frame to hold it together.

[RP]

That's pretty neat!

Now you just need to mount a 2-axis tracker on the edge of the roof to redirect the sun straight down to the window mirror (which could be fixed at 45°) and you could have a beam of sunshine all day.  :-)

[Nando]

It is a good idea.

I am aware of one in a Subterranean house where a large mirror with a tracker (it had a small electric solar panel and a battery) reflects to another one which directs the light down via a large duct that hit a white semi transparent hemisphere to spread the light around.

I have some photos in an old hard disk that is not mounted.

There are other techniques for the same purpose.

Nando

[hiker]

bright idea......

hows the passingwind 200 holding up[thats it in the photo right?]

i have a 220v 18amp at 6000rpms treadmill motor..works great on my pedgen..

been thinkin about makin some blades for it..i dont belive it needs a decogger-

least wise on the pedgen i didnt really notice any cogging........

ps. for those interrested i have a video compressor tool in my files..

it shrinks your video down to a more usable size.[for uploading or whatever]

only drawback is you have to have it installed on your pc to veiw the clips..

 the file is called--radtools.exe--  works on win98-xp-and others...

[wooferhound]

Well now you have more heat being reflected into the house . . .

Those cheap mirrors don't last long in the weather. Water seeps into the edges and the silver goes Grey and then Black. It looks like a fungus growing in from the sides (and it may be so). You should seal up the sides really well and put coats of paint on the back to make the mirror last longer for you.

[DanG]

A few years back I saw a web site on a passive solar home in Australia (I think) and the gent calculated the winter suns angle and set shallow ramps away from his sunward side out of concrete - then come winter they set down stainless steel plates that reflect extra sunlight up into the home to get the heat energy out of it; I believe it was similar to yours in that the light was directed onto the ceiling. The house had some serious overhangs to shade summer sun so the deck-reflectors really made a large increase in passive collector size...

[CmeBREW]

Thanks guys. All very interesting ideas. I also keep thinking about some form of axis tracker. Even a single axis wouldn't be too bad, but it would probably need to be adjusted every few weeks I guess. Of course we're talking about some electronics and little movement motors which is somewhat unavoidably complex for the common man. I would think something like this would be great to market though if someone could figure out the electronics stuff.(cheaply enough)

Most people would LOVE to get some more natural light into their rooms and basement rooms if it didn't cost too much. Previously, I had lived 24 years in a house that was quite dark all the time in every room, since it had dark green carpet and the fixed garage was on the sunny side. And two sides of the house was right on the edge of a big woods. But now, I am very happy to have some wonderful sun light at my new house. It does make me feel way better I think. I can't stand darkness inside when the sun is shining outside.

If I build a house again, I will think much more about the heating and the NATURAL lighting systems.

Wooferhound: I don't believe the mirror reflects much heat inside. I felt the ceiling where the light hits and it is no warmer than the rest of the ceiling. I don't know how long that mirror will last in good condition outside, but you convinced me to caulk the back side also. I had already painted the back of the mirror with white enamel spray can paint. Hopefully it will last at least a year. I can always put a new "cheap" mirror into the frame each year and re-caulk it in about 10 or 15 minutes.

There is one more important thing I forgot to mention in the original post. If anyone makes one of these, be VERY careful that the mirror don't swing up and break your expensive window during high winds or a thunderstorm!! I am still working on fixing (preventing) this problem. A thunderstorm can happen in the middle of the night unexpectedly. I might have a string on the back side of the mirror that ties it down somehow, or some kind of a metal rod bracket that prevents the mirror from being able to swing up too high where it could hit and break the window. To come to think of it, I also forgot to mention my disclaimer: It is the following:

"I'm responsible for nothin'--(if you make one of these)--and you're responsible for everything."

Thanks all for the good comments. If anyone has anything else to add to the discussion, please do so!!! We all benefit!  

(HIKER -"PassingWind" IS still generating during a rare windy day in the summer.(or a thunderstorm)  However, the yaw axis don't turn as easy anymore (less grease I guess) and because it is a downwind turbine, I often have to manually turn the stupid thing with a long aluminum extension pole to get it into the wind. I think I soon am going to convert it to an UPWIND generator and put 4 (instead of 3) new blades on it. -Thanks.)

[Phil Timmons]

I am thinking all you need to do now is add a disco mirror ball on the ceiling for the reflected sunlight to hit . . .

In a slightly more real note about mirrors and outdoors . . . Good idea on sealing them, Woofer.  

I think the Teton design just used regular 12 inch square wall mirror tiles, with no treatment.

http://www.ida.net/users/tetonsl/solar/solarhom.htm

From Teton's section on mirrors . . .

http://www.ida.net/users/tetonsl/solar/page_40.htm

"The mirrors are simply mirror tiles available at most "home supply" stores. They are a very popular item for interior decorating. We use them without treatment, simply cementing them into the spring clips with a bead of silicon sealer. At this time, we'll also mount the outriggers that were built earlier.

Failure of the mirrors brought about the final shutdown after seven years of service. The reflective (silver) backing peeled off, starting at the mirrors edge. A few that failed early were replaced with a bead of silicon sealer added all the way around the edge and this did seem to extend the life."

[cyplesma]

don't know if this helps and I don't know if these folks normally carry these items but......

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G16067

something to think about anyway.

-

[chadking]

Nice going on getting more light. I'm sure it does make a huge difference.  People say there is a big difference between artificial light and real sunlight.

Take a look at this slightly more advanced setup. Maybe some mylar covered satellite dishes and fiber optics in the future?  Haha..

Hybrid Solar Lighting

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DJK9f6fs3Dw

[GaryGary]

Hi,

Nice idea.

I also really like rooms lighted by sunlight.

A good paper by Steve Baer at Zomeworks on using seasonally adjusted reflectors for lighting and heat control:

http://zomeworks.com/tech/tech.html

Gary

[BurksFallsMan]

CemBrew: Good idea to expand the number of hours you can watch TV programs. However I have one idea to share with you. I am also on solar power part of the summer and purchased a small DVD player (5 to 7 inches screen) and utilizes only 1/2 watt. I you have TV receiver for FTA like the Pansat that is another 25 Watts that totals 25 1/2 watts for all of it compared to a regular TV with 50+ watts consumption. You can utilize ear phones for sound and works well. Cost is approx. $99.00 for the DVD player and runs directly with 12 volts.

Wilson

[CmeBREW]

Thanks Wilson,

     Yes I am also planning on getting a MUCH more efficient TV and DVD player real soon. I have been waiting for my 27" Sharp (tube) TV to begin to go bad so I could justify annying-up the money to get a new one.  The TV is 8 years old and the picture is still perfect. All my previous TV's went bye bye in about 4 years. But Its got to go sometime!! It is 110 watts plus about 30 watts for using the 12vdc to 120vac power inverter-- so 140 watts really eats up most of my small system. I will never get a power hungry tube TV again. I am currently researching efficient 120vac AND 12vdc TV's to purchase one soon though. It would be best to go directly to batts. It is amazing the efficient things they are making these days. Now if only they could invent super-efficient heating elements!!!