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Redirecting sunlight into shaded Windows?

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anrchy

anrchy

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So I have basically zero windows in my house that receive enough sunlight for growing certain plants. Some of them get no direct sunlight shining through them. Is there a device in existence that uses mirrors to channel sunlight into windows?

If there are I would like to atleast check em out as I will possibly build my own. Although depending on price might just buy something already built.

If there isn't, anyone here with ideas to deal with this issue? I was thinking a box above the window with mirrors. Something built with aesthetics in mind.
 
That looks like a really cool idea. Only problem is it looks like it would require putting holes in walls and such and I don't know if my landlord would be chill with that.
 
I would be very interested to see how some jerry rigged mirror contraption would work. I wouldn't try to make something fancy. Just do the box above the window idea .
 
I was thinking a tubed box with a tapered top with a plexiglass lid. A few mirrors inside to direct as much light as possible down through itself. Hopefully placing it above the window enough so that you can't see it from inside the house without trying.
 
What about a light tube like the solatube skylights ?

You can get them with flexible tubes and the dome can be placed almost anywhere.

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I actually was looking at this as an idea when you posted this. I have a few of these installed in my house already but they all have a frosted "lens" that I'm thinking decreases the strength of the light, making it useless for growing plants that require direct sunlight.

Although I'm sure one could be modified. I could actually make something like this fairly easy. Seems like it's more of an ambient light rather than a direct sunlight kind of device though. It's giving me some ideas though.
 
Yeah it would be more diffuse than direct sunlight even with a clear dome fitted.

It would be an excellent way to compliment the spectrum produced by fluorescents or LEDS to help the plants produce the full range of flavenoids etc.

I used to have an indoor grow room running HID's and they got very expensive to run when the cost of electricity started going up. So I tried running them for different lengths of time each day to establish how I could use them cost effectively.

I ended up running them for 5 hours on the flowering cycle and used CFL's for the other seven. The CFL's were only 20 watts and I ran six of them in an area 5*5 feet. The HID was a 600 watt HPS.

The plants had a morning period with CFL's, a mid-day with HID's and an afternoon with CFL's. At 5 hrs of HID lighting the plants grew almost as well as they do on 12hrs of HID lighting. The plants were not as compact but the yield was only about 15% lower than it was when they were being blasted for 12 hours with the HID's. 15 % less yield for less than 50% energy input and cost is a good trade off in my book.

The light tube could be adapted to a similar system.
 
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