Solar tube google fail

I’m trying to find internet advice regarding the design aspects of colocating solar tubes with traditional ceiling light fixtures. And it’s just not happening!

You’re like, “What?” Yeah, that’s what google was like. “What?” Google knows what solar tubes are, but it does not understand the concept of determining where to colocate them with ceiling light fixtures.

Solar tubes are a more modern and cheaper version of skylights. From inside your house, they look like regular recessed lights.

Here’s what they look like on your roof:

And here’s what a whole one looks like:

Our new house was built in the 1970’s and it has low, flat ceilings. It’s dark! We’ve always had lofted ceilings and skylights in the past, and we’re used to a lot of natural light. So we’re going to install solar tubes throughout the main living area (kitchen, dining, family, office).

There are a couple of existing ceiling lights in the kitchen-dining areas, but no light at all in the family room and office. I’m not a fan of floor lamps because I like to locate furniture away from the wall, and then I’ve got cords in the way. Plus I don’t like cluttered houses. I much prefer my light coming from the ceiling.

However, skylight and solar tube options only work during the day, obviously. So at night I’m going to need some sort of electric lighting.

I have specific places I’d like to light; above the couch, above the dining room table, and so on. So, do I put the ceiling lights near the solar tubes? Or do I put the ceiling lights where I want the light, and then put the solar tubes somewhere else? How close can I put them?

So that was when I started googling about interior design and colocation of solar tubes with ceiling lighting and google was, “huh???”

There is a potential option to put electric LED lights inside of the solar tube, so you can turn those on at night. However, there are several potential issues with that solution. We have a flat roof and there may not be enough space between the top of the roof and the ceiling to add the LED light fixture (particularly because it’s an older house).

Secondly, there’s a limit to the wattage, so they aren’t going to be particularly bright. So I might end up needing lamps anyway.

Thirdly, a lot of the light goes out the roof, which is a waste and causes nighttime light pollution. It probably won’t be visible from the street because our roof is flat with a parapet around it. But the house on the hill that looks down on us would definitely see it.

We’re going to have an “in home consultation” in a couple of weeks, so hopefully they will be experienced with deciding where exactly to locate them.