Are Sun Tunnels Worth It?
What are sun tunnels? Are they worth it, and are they right for your home? We had four sun tunnels installed on the second floor of our home four years ago, and I'm sharing an honest review and lots of details with you in this post so you can decide if they are right for you.
Sun tunnels are a phenomenal way to bring beautiful natural light into a room and are far more affordable than skylights. I'm sharing our personal experience with VELUX Sun Tunnels while answering common questions about them, too!
A huge thank you to VELUX for partnering with us on this project back in 2022. As always, all opinions are 100% my own. I don't partner with companies or share products that I don't genuinely recommend and love.
Many years ago, we gave our staircase and upstairs hallway a complete makeover by installing board and batten, adding a stair runner, updating the stair railing, and painting nearly everything.
But by far, the most transformative part of the renovation was the installation of four VELUX Sun Tunnels in 2022. It sounds dramatic, but the sun tubes have completely transformed the look of the upstairs of the house. More importantly, adding sun tunnels has completely changed the way we FEEL about the second floor of our home. Before I share why we chose to have VELUX Sun Tunnels installed and show you what a huge difference they've made for us, let's cover some of the basics.
What Are Sun Tunnels?
A sun tunnel (sometimes referred to as a tubular skylight, a sun tube, or a solar tube) is a circular channel that directs sunlight from your roof down a highly reflective aluminum tunnel and into a room or space below. Flexible tunnels are the best way to illuminate dark spaces. They're the best option for areas of your home that don't otherwise receive much natural light through windows — with new sun tubes, you'll have light pouring in!
What is the Difference Between a Sun Tunnel and a Skylight?
Skylights
A skylight is a small window mounted on your roof. A skylight lets in lots of natural light AND allows you to see blue sky. You also have options to open and close skylights as well as add remote-controlled blinds to them. Depending on the type of skylight and its installation, they can also add architectural interest to your home's ceiling. We had VELUX skylights installed in our old home, and they were pure magic. I cannot tell you how much we loved them, and they were a huge selling point when we listed our old house for sale. You can see the VELUX skylights we had installed in our old primary bedroom below.
Sun Tunnels
On the other hand, a sun tunnel uses an acrylic dome mounted on your roof to capture daylight, magnify it with reflective tubing, and send it down the ceiling through the tube of your home. They can fit into smaller spaces and navigate around attic obstructions thanks to the sun tunnel’s flexibility and the material's maneuverability, while traditional skylights cannot. This makes sun tunnels far more versatile in terms of where they can be installed.
Sun tunnels let in loads of natural light, but they are very different than skylights. You cannot see blue sky through a sun tunnel. You can’t open or close them, nor can you install blinds. And they really don't add architectural interest to a space. But they are a phenomenal and cost-effective way to add natural light to dark interior spaces in your home.
The speed of the installation process is AWESOME! A sun tunnel can be installed within a day, making it one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to transform your home with natural light. We had FOUR sun tunnels installed over the course of a day and a half.
How Much Does It Cost to Install a Sun Tunnel?
Installation costs depend mainly on the length of the reflective flexible tube required and the exact type of sun tunnel chosen (low-profile vs. flat glass, rigid sun tunnels vs. flexible solar tubes). However, it's safe to say that you can generally expect to pay between $650 and $2,150 per new sun tunnel.
This is FAR LESS than the cost of installed skylights, especially if you want VELUX skylights that open and close, have blinds, etc.VELUX offers a FREE virtual consultation service. You can meet with a daylight design consultant by phone or video conference to ask questions about skylights and discuss options for your home. You can also easily locate an installer if you're considering Sun Tunnels.
Do Sun Tunnels Leak?
When I first shared on Instagram that we planned to have sun tunnels installed, so many expressed concerns about leaking! Old skylights have a bad rap for leaking (especially with a flat roof vs. a pitched roof). Though this fear may linger in people's minds, we aren't concerned about leakage at all!
First, because they’re small and have a relatively flat dome that allows water to drain around them, there is less risk of leakage with sun tunnels than with skylights. However, even when we had skylights installed in our previous home, we didn't worry about leaks because VELUX makes “No Leak Skylights,” which feature three layers of water protection. Proper installation for your type of roof is also crucial. Even with the best VELUX products, incorrect installation and subpar contractors can cause leaks and other issues.
When VELUX Sun Tunnels are installed correctly, they have a weather-tight installation. During installation, the installer uses highly adhesive mastic to secure the flashing piece to the roof deck. The flashing piece is also screwed into place, and the screws and top portion of the flashing are covered with sealant. All-weather underlayment is installed over the flashing to ensure proper drainage of rainwater. Finally, the installer will reinstall the roofing material over the flashing and around the Sun Tunnel.
Be sure to use a VELUX-certified installer to ensure your Sun Tunnel is properly installed. We had our sun tunnels (and the skylights in our old home) installed by a VELUX Signature Skylight Specialist through Natural Home Lite. If you are in North Carolina, I highly recommend them. They are a dream to work with, and we 100% trust their expertise and installation
Why We Chose VELUX Sun Tunnels for Our Current Home
I explain a lot in the video below and show videos of how absurdly dark our hallway was before we started our renovation–I recommend you watch it to get the whole picture.
Given how much we loved the VELUX skylights in our old home, we obviously wanted them again in our current home! When I first reached out to VELUX about our upstairs project, I inquired about skylights. Unfortunately, they just weren't possible with the depth of the attic space we have here.
But I learned that sun tunnels would almost certainly work for the locations where we needed them. We set up an appointment for Natural Home Lite to conduct a site visit. They looked around the attic and our home and determined that, YES, we could install two 14-inch sun tunnels in our hallway and 10-inch sun tunnels in our girls' bathrooms. I couldn’t contain my excitement!
We did have some HOA limitations to work around. Our HOA rejected our initial plan, which proposed two flat glass sun tunnels on the front of our roofline. But Natural Home Lite was great and figured out a way to position all four sun tunnels on our rear roofline instead. Fortunately, our HOA approved the revised plan we submitted!
Our Upstairs Before Our VELUX Sun Tunnels Were Installed
When we were house hunting and saw this home, we nearly didn't make an offer on it because of how dark and cave-like so much of the second floor was. The large upstairs hallway had no windows or natural light sources. The only way the hallway received any natural light was to have the doors to the upstairs rooms open. The fact is that the doors to our upstairs rooms are often closed. With the doors closed, you couldn't see to walk down the hallway without a light on (you can see what I mean in the video I shared earlier in this post).
You can see below how dark the hallway was, EVEN WITH the doors to the upstairs rooms open. Crazy!
Avery's bathroom and Attley's bathroom also completely lacked any direct sources of natural light. This is how the small spaces looked without any lights on. Bleh.
You can see why we wanted to add some natural light to our upstairs hallway and bathrooms!
How Much Light Do Sun Tunnels Really Let It?
As I mentioned above, we had all four VELUX Sun Tunnels installed over the course of a day and a half. It was painless to live through. For most of the first day, the installers from Natural Home Lite spent their time outside on the roof and in the attic. The second day is when they actually cut through the ceiling and finished everything. This is what it looked like after they had cut through the roof and ceiling, but before they installed the reflective tunnel. So much natural light spilled through! This photo is straight from my phone and hasn't been edited.
But y'all… LOOK AT HOW MUCH BRIGHTER EVERYTHING GOT ONCE THE REFLECTIVE TUBES WERE ATTACHED. I was legitimately shocked by the amount of light flooding into our hallway. SHOCKED! This photo is also straight out of my phone and is not edited at all.
Before and After Comparisons
Okay, I know you want to see how our upstairs hallway and bathrooms look with our VELUX Sun Tunnels installed, so here you go! You can watch the transformations in the video below, but I also added lots of photos for you :)
I've included side-by-side shots of the hallway, taken with the same camera settings so that you get a pure comparison. With the same shutter speed and aperture settings, the only difference in these photos is the fact that sun tunnels have been installed.
You can see that with the same camera settings, the photos are way OVEREXPOSED after the sun tunnels were installed. The difference is incredible, isn't it?!
And here are some photos of the hallway, with exposure and settings adjusted to accommodate all the natural light that now floods into our hallway!
I shot the before-and-after photos of Avery's bathroom and Attley's bathroom with my phone, which auto-adjusts everything. So it's not a “controlled comparison” like the photos of the hallway above, BUT it's still pretty easy to see how much brighter their bathrooms are with the sun tunnels installed.
We've had our sun tunnels installed for over 4 years now, and I still sometimes think our girls have left the lights in their bathrooms on when I walk past them, lol. The fact is, we NEVER even turn the lights on in their bathrooms during the day anymore. The 10-inch sun tunnels installed provide more than enough light during the day!
Surprising Perks of VELUX Sun Tunnels
We were pleasantly surprised by a couple of things with our VELUX sun tunnels. First of all, you can add a solar night light to each sun tunnel, which is so cool (and made our sun tunnels eligible for a Federal solar tax credit, specifically the “Solar Electric Property” credit).
The VELUX Solar Night Light captures available sunlight to charge its concealed battery, which then powers the night light's LED bulbs after dark. And it fits inside your sun tunnel, so you don’t even see it. We have one in each of our sun tunnels, and they provide a perfect, soft glow at night, allowing you to see without needing to turn on a bright light.
The diffusers you choose for your sun tunnels also give you some control over the appearance of your sun tunnels, where they meet your ceiling, and the temperature of the light that comes into your space. The daylight that the sun tunnels capture and reflect is quite cool (blueish).
I thought the light felt a bit too cool for our home, so we added a neutral light diffuser to warm up the temperature of the light a bit. You can see a difference in the photo below. I'm still undecided about which I prefer, especially since the light changes significantly throughout the day as the sun's angle shifts. It's entirely a matter of personal preference, but it's nice to have options!
Are Sun Tunnels Right for You? Here's The Bottom Line.
If you have a dark room that needs direct sunlight, you should absolutely consider sun tunnels. They are more budget-friendly than skylights, let in a tremendous amount of natural light, and can be installed nearly anywhere due to their versatility. The installation is much faster than installing skylights. They're a great way to brighten up small rooms, such as laundry rooms or home offices, and the installation costs are reasonable.
We could not be happier with our sun tunnels! They have completely changed the way we feel about the second story of our home. It used to be dark and depressing, and now it's so bright and happy! The installation of sun tunnels was the perfect solution for adding natural lighting to our house.
If you're interested in VELUX skylights and have the space and budget to install them, be sure to check out this post about the VELUX skylights we installed in our last house. We loved them so much (and still miss them).
Other Posts You May Enjoy
- Stunning Board and Batten Wall Ideas
- Interior Trim Ideas that Aren't White
- 8 Interior Design Mistakes You Don’t Even Know You are Making (and How to Fix Them)
- How to Choose Paint Colors for Your Home: 6 Simple Tips to Follow
Wondering how I approach transforming rooms and spaces in our home? Check out Designer in a Binder®.
And if you want exclusive content and behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, be sure to subscribe before you head out!
Thank you so much for these awesome before/after photos! I will be having sun tunnels installed in the next week, and I was having a hard time picturing how much light they might bring in. The thoughtful way you used the same camera settings in the before and after photos really helped illustrate the info I needed!
Hey Rachel- I am glad it was helpful. We were amazed at how much light they let in. I hope you are as happy with your sun tunnels as we are with ours.
Great post! We just installed two in our living room. Did you end up switching to the neutral light diffuser? If so, is it less bright compared to the stock diffuser?
Hi Mike! It’s really just a diffuser film you put inside the cover, but it does soften and warm up the tone of the light that filters in nicely! You can also buy diffuser film from Amazon and cut it into a circle shape to accomplish the same thing. I hope that helps!
We have a home with a dark center (which not as nice a thing as a chocolate truffle with a dark center lol) and are considering sun tunnels. Does it FEEL like sunlight, because in the photos it has a similar light quality asa, say, a flush mount light with a couple strong bulbs. Wondering if the light quality is worth the cost! Hope you respond all these months later :) Thank you!
Hi Julie! It definitely feels like sunlight in our house–it’s much brighter than a ceiling light would be :) You can somewhat control the tone of the light that comes in by adding a filter to the sun tunnel cover if you want it to appear warmer in tone.
Very informative post! I’m planning to install 10″ sun tunnels in my second story ADU project, but one of the locations for the dome will only get indirect daylight for about half the day. Do you know what impact this might have on the luminance and quality of the light? Thanks!
Hi Lenny! I feel like ours only get indirect daylight most of the time and we have been very happy with the amount of light coming it. I hope that helps!
Very nice post. We have a big place for meditation retreats with 3 or 4 very dark corridors and rooms in a 250 year old building. This post has clarified nicely what gains can be had from Velux sun tunnels. Very inspiring to see the real world before and after pictures with different camera settings.
I’m so glad you found it helpful! We love our Velux Sun Tunnels. They have TOTALLY transformed how we feel about the second story of our home. I hope you are able to find a way to use them in your meditation retreat!
The difference is incredible! I looked into this a little bit for our living room. It is so dark even on a sunny day. When it storms during the day you have to turn lights on. Nice job on the whole stair and hallway renovation.