we have a second floor window that catches some awesome sun lite.

we keep the first floor windows closed for the most part, since we are on a busy street.

the house is narrow/long, and the landing for the second floor catches the sun, and that wall on the landing,
is parallel with the rest of the house.

i got 16 mirrors for $20 last week, about a foot square, maybe a foot and half.

got a large mirror on the other wall of the landing now. you can see that mirror in the picture, and how that mirror faces into the living room.

would like to get some of that sunlight into the living space.

but want it to be kid safe too.

 

You might want ot be kinda carefull. I seem to remeber seeing an experiment where they used a series of mirrors to generate heat and for some reason I think they actually started a fire with it. I could be complety wrong though. You might want to google it and see what you get.

Good Luck,

Kip.

 

There's no fire risk unless you are using a lens of some kind to increase the intensity of the sun's rays.

A simple 45° angle by putting mirrors in the far right corner will make a big improvement-- but you can think of more elaborate arrangements.

jh

 

I would think that having 16 mirrors cocked off at weird angles up and down the hall would look kinda goofy. Any way that you could install a couple of those light tubes that mount on the roof and through the attic into the room you want lit ??? Maybe you could route the reflective tubes through a closet in the rooms on the second floor so they aren't too noticable.

Folks around here sometimes use those things for use in the back rooms of their finished basements.

PISTOL

 

i'm not so much on the thinking part...
that does sound good, just go up the corner with the mirrors at a 45,
and put a few on the wall.

yea, why paid $20 for all of them, use what i want, throw rest away, or put them in the garage to reflect the lighting around in there.

nah, has to be tasteful, and look good.
not concerned about lighting it up completely, more of a "mood lighting" type deal

 

start by getting rid of the pink walls. try a high gloss white.
Past that, anything you do is going to look funky unless you can find a nice curio cabinet to sit caticorner.
You might try building a small shelf that you can sit in the corner with the mirrors in it.

 

Don't forget, when you are walking up that hallway, whatever light will be lighting the area will also be staring you in the face........

 

ba-da bing!!

a curio, that's what i was looking for, something elegant, but where you can have stuff at an angle.


ain't nuthin up there but stuffed animals, and my ebay packing materials.
we keep a TV up there for visiting kids to watch disney

 

Actually it has been done. it was a joint venture between MIT and Mythbusters. they had a whole bunch of mirrors, around 1500 or so. it didnt cause spontaneous combustion but it did start a fire.

 

Sky-light.

 

Use smaller mirrors at a 45* angle to the sunshine and have them project light down the hall into a convex miror at the bottom to expand and disperse the sunlight into the room.
Have the light beam onto a big mirrored disco ball.

Build a heliostat with a few mirrors and a tracking system.
http://www.heliotrack.com/

http://www.bomin-solar.de/English/heliostats.htm

 

Yeah senior ... that's the ticket. Dig out that old disco ball you got stored in the attic ... (might as well try on that old paisly shirt while you're there).

PISTOL

 

well, due lack of constructive input... (a disco ball ? )

i built this table from scrap wood from work

the legs are ~$6 each from Home Depot.

it actually does ALOT more than you would think,
but you still have to open & close the blinds.
the real problem is that is in the dining room, and it hits the wall on the other side of the dining room. if i hooked the CTD up to the house, and rotated it a few degrees.....

Home Depot has 8 foot lengths of channel, for $7 each,
but the glass is a bit too thin for that.

might find the right channel to sit it in, and still make something to fit in that corner in the stair well.