High aspect ratio daylight collectors
AssigneeSolatube International, Inc.
InventorPaul August Jaster
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Lighting devices and methods for providing daylight to the interior of a structure are disclosed. Some embodiments disclosed herein provide a daylighting device including a tube having a sidewall with a reflective interior surface, a light collecting structure, and a light reflector positioned to reflect daylight into the light collector. In some embodiments, the light collector is associated with one or more light-turning and/or light reflecting structures configured to increase the amount of light captured by the daylighting device. Optical elements may allow for the absorption and/or selective transmission of infrared light away from an interior of the daylighting device.
Claims21
An at least partially transparent light-collecting device configured to direct daylight through a collector base aperture and into an interior of a building when the light-collecting device is installed on a roof of the building, the device comprising:
- a top cover portion;
- a substantially vertical sidewall portion configured to support the top cover portion above an upper end of the substantially vertical sidewall portion and to define a collector base aperture at a lower end of the substantially vertical sidewall portion, wherein the substantially vertical sidewall portion has a height that extends between the top cover portion and the collector base aperture, and wherein the height of the substantially vertical portion is greater than a width of the collector base aperture;
- a prismatic element configured to refract a portion of light that passes through the substantially vertical sidewall portion;
- and
- a reflector configured to turn at least a portion of the refracted light towards the collector base aperture, wherein the reflector has a luminous reflectance greater than or equal to about 0.95 when measured with respect to CIE Illuminant D65;
- wherein the light-collecting device is configured to be positioned over an opening in a roof of a building and is configured to direct daylight into the opening in the roof when the light-collecting device is installed as part of a daylighting device installation.
A method of illuminating an interior of a building, the method comprising:
- receiving daylight on a substantially vertical surface;
- turning the daylight towards an aperture lying in a substantially horizontal plane using a prismatic film disposed within a light-collecting device;
- and
- reflecting the daylight towards the aperture using a reflector;
- wherein the substantially vertical surface has a height greater than a width of the aperture.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.