Solar tubes are used for transporting the natural light of the sun into rooms without windows, similar to the way the sun lights the cave in this picture.

Maharishi University of Management students build low cost solar tube
by Maharishi University of Management, The Review, Vol. 25, #1
21 September 2009

Students Sandra Caldwell and Adrien Rivero, along with faculty Mark Stimson, recently built a solar tube—a project initiated during a course in high-performance green building in block 8.

Solar tubes are used for piping natural light into rooms that don't have windows, and the University hopes to use them widely in campus buildings as part of its sustainability initiative.

The goal of this project was to mimic the design of a Solatube, a product that runs $900 a tube.

"It's a high cost considering the goal is to light every office with one," Ms. Caldwell said.

Their solar tube was built using easy-to-find supplies such as 2x4s and Mylar, a reflective plastic.

The team used their creativity and recycled the old fluorescent light covering to refract the light at the end of the tube, thereby lighting all corners of the office where the experimental tube was installed.

The total cost when finished? $160.

© Copyright 2009, Maharishi University of
Management