When choosing a Tubular Daylight System (TDS) you will find a number of different suppliers of systems. These systems fall into two different categories; rigid and flexible. Rigid systems, such as Sun Glo^®, use hi-tech, highly reflective (in our case Alanod® which uses a ridgid 98% reflectiive material to transfer the light).  Flexible systems use a foil air-conditioning style ducting to try and perform the same task.

So how do you choose which system to buy and what difference will it make?  Dont you want the maximum amount of natural light into your home?

The answer is simple. A Sun Glo^® TDS will transfer at least 10 times more light than a flexible system (in a typical installation). But don’t take our word for it. In recent tests carried out by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) systems, a TDS  was shown to out-perform the best flexible systems by around 10 times. The tests were based on the system being located on a south facing roof. If your were to consider the difference when located on a north, east or west facing roof, a Sun Glo^® solar tube could be delivering around 10 times more light and potentially a lot more*.

So why does anyone buy a flexible system? Well the simple answer is that they are cheap. However, when it comes to installation, the cost is the same. So when you consider, in order to achieve the same light levels as one Sun Glo tubular skylight  you’d need at least 10 flexible systems, it’s immediately apparent that the Sun Glo daylighting system is the best value solution.

*depending on time of day.