I’m a big fan of The Luxury Letter published by Leonard Steinberg and Hervé Senequier. In this month’s issue they feature a company that brings sunlight into dark rooms through solar panels and fiber optic cables. Huvco Daylighting Systems has developed the Parans Fiber Optic System which works by mounting solar panels on a roof that collect sunlight which is brought into the building and desired rooms through fiber optic cabels granting glorious sunlight in what could have been a once dungeonous room. This is absolutely BRILLIANT…pun intended! Check out the diagram and description below which comes directly from their website:
The simple principle of the Parans System is shown (above). First, sunlight is collected by Parans Solar Panels outdoors. The sunlight is then brought into the building through the Parans Optical Cables. Indoors, the sunlight flows out through Parans Luminaires. This technology is called Fiber Optic Solar Lighting.
This technology could change the way we live!
Several years ago my wife and I lived in a 2BR co-op on the Upper West Side with a VERY dark second bedroom facing an airshaft. The bedroom was to be our newborn son’s room and although it provided a cave-like sleeping environment (not so bad) we desperately wanted him to have more light. To that end, I built a window light box that consisted of shoji screens that were back lit by a soft white light on a dimmer that was mounted inside the top of the window frame. My hope was to put a timer on the light and "rig it" to dim to full brightness in the morning simulating sunlight. Needless to say, I never got around to the simulated sunlight part of the device but it did look a lot like sun shining through the shoji screens.
Imagine bringing natural sunlight into that interior library, den, bedroom or dining room! If you can’t tell, I’m very excited about this project and look forward to seeing it used widely in the future.
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