BLOG
search

Fiber Optic Lighting

Jessica PirroJune 5, 2019 2197 1

When referring to fiber optics, most of the time you are referring to internet connections, however the technology can be used for indoor lighting. Solar fiber optic lighting, is a way to use the sun in order to naturally light indoor spaces without having any windows.  

Solar Fiber Optic Lighting

The solar fiber optic lighting setups is an alternative to traditional indoor lights that use fiber optic technology. The fiber optic cables are designed to carry light from the point to point by internally reflecting the light along their length. Solar fiber optic setups will allow you to capture sunlight, transmit it inside and release it into your home or business. They are more expensive than traditional setups, a fiber optic lighting installation can help save money on your electricity costs while you provide a high quality, natural light through your property.

How It Works

The solar fiber optic lighting systems bring natural sunlight into your building to shine light on rooms without any access to windows. There’s three components to these systems:

  1. The Solar Collectors/Receivers

Like photovoltaic solar panels and hot water solar systems, the solar fiber optic systems, they collect they sunlight that’s on top of a roof. The solar collectors that are used for fiber optic lighting are normally made of several small mirrors that focus sunlight into the fibers that will transmit the light. Similar to the ground-mounted tracking systems, there are many solar collectors for fiber optic setups to track the sun throughout the day. This will allow them to capture as much sunlight as possible to funnel down into your building.

  1. Fiber Optic Cables

Once the solar collectors capture sunlight, they’ll focus it into the actual fiber optic cables that will transmit all of the light that it captures the light throughout your building. Solar fiber optic cables are very similar to electric wiring, but instead of transmitting the power, they transmit the light by reflecting the light internally along their entire length. Cables are normally made from glass or plastic and the glass versions generally carry light more effectively but they will come at a much higher price.

  1. Indoor Lights

The last major components of the solar fiber system are the lights themselves. The lights can travel up to a few hundred feet through the fiber optic cables and at the end of each cable is a light apparatus that will disperse the sunlight, like a traditional electrical lighting set up. The Fiber optic light companies will often have multiple kinds of lighting products that will provide a different lighting experience, the differ from spotlights to a large area lighting.

The Costs

The costs for solar fiber optic lighting systems will vary based on the brand. The lighting boxes will themselves cost around $500 or more depending on their size. The fiber optic cables are normally, so lighting an area of your building that’s much further away from your roof they will cost a lot more than an area close to it. In addition to the material that you use for the cables that will influence the pricing. The glass cables are higher quality and last much longer, but can cost around $10 per foot. The other option for cable material is acrylic, it provides a lower quality light at about half of the costs per foot.

Are You A Good Fit For Fiber Optic Lighting

If you aren’t opposed to a high upfront cost that is attached to solar fiber optic lighting installation, there are many benefits that will come to upgrading your homes lighting to your fiber optics. You’ll get your high quality natural light, you’ll use less electricity and you won’t have to worry about changing any light bulbs that are in hard to reach places.

For most property owners, the solar optic lighting won’t be worth the initial upfront cost. But as with other solar panels technologies they become more widespread, the fiber optic lighting options will be more and more viable for all kinds of properties.

Solar system price checker

Comments (1)

  • curious • September 1, 2020 0 1

    Just a copy paste from this?: https://news.energysage.com/solar-fiber-optic-lighting-overview/

Design Your Solar Home

START

12 3

Input your address to see if it is solar friendly and how much you can save with solar.

Great. Your address is perfect for solar. Solar incentive is still available. Select monthly utility cost and calculate the size of solar system you will need now.

Whoa ! Going solar is definitely a smart decision.

kw System size years Payback period Lifetime savings

No money down, 100% finance is available.

Calculate how much you could save by switching to solar

Do not show this information again.